Monochromatic Ideals
by Writer's Domino
Summary: They were brothers, the both of them. And they wanted very little outside of what they already had in their lives. So why ever would they walk down the paths they chose?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- Usually authors place notes here. I have nothing to say right now.  
**

 **Oh, wait, disclaimer. I do not own My Hero Academia (a.k.a Boku No Hero Academia (also called My Hero Acca by some for short (also called Macadamia if you're one of _those_ people))).**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Arc 1- Synchronous dissonance**

 **Episode 1- Brothers**

* * *

There came a point in someone's life when important decisions had to be made. The ability to make complex decisions defined what it meant to be human, after all. The loss of the ability to decide was the loss of free will. And the loss of free will was the loss of meaning to one's own personal existence. But decisions could be dangerous, as well. One wrong decision could lead to great success, or damning failure. Sometimes a simple choice was all that stood between life and death.

But Kyomu was only four, so thankfully any decisions he made right now wouldn't be that heavy.

He wrung his hands nervously as he walked down the crowded streets, weaving through the masses of people walking past him. It wasn't them that made him nervous; he was used to being around so many people at this point. No, he was anxious for an entirely different reason altogether. And he didn't know what to do in order to ease it.

"You're going to tear the bill in half if you keep gripping it like that," a voice cautioned behind him. Kyomu turned his head to the white-haired boy behind him, who was glaring at his hands. "You know what, I don't trust you. Gimme that."

"But Hikari..." Kyomu protested, though he didn't fight back when the one-thousand yen bill was torn from his hands.

Hikari regarded the money he now held with a disgusted look, his face cringing back at the mere touch. "Aw man, what the- it's all sweaty!" He shook the bill frantically, drops of perspiration flying off and landing on the sidewalk. "It wasn't enough you had to wrinkle it so much, but you had to make it so wet it'll probably disintegrate before we even get to the shop!?"

"I can't help it, Hikari!" Kyomu complained. "It's just, well, my throat's really dry and it's really hot and since I didn't get to drink anything all day-" he pointed away from the two of them, towards where they had walked from, "-and when I saw that guy restocking the vending machine with Grapetastic Fizz, I got really thirsty and-"

"Hold it right there." The boy's red eyes bored straight into Kyomu's blue ones. "You are not suggesting we spend this money on a nasty-tasting soda so you're not thirsty."

Kyomu looked down in shame. "I mean, it's not that bad..." he mumbled. "And I was going to get you one, too."

"Kyomu, we pooled our allowance together so we could buy the manga we've been waiting _weeks_ for the day it came out. You're not throwing away all of that on some sodas. Besides, did you see the guy who was putting the cans into the machine?" Hikari almost shivered as the image of that man returned to him. "His Quirk made him have tongues for fingers. He may as well have been licking every can he touched."

"But you only put your lips on the top part, and he wasn't touching that," Kyomu reminded. "So it doesn't count."

"It's the principle," Hikari sighed. "Plus I don't want to take that risk. Come on." He walked in front of the black-haired child, shoving the yen bill into his pocket in the process.

Kyomu, not wishing to pursue the argument, could only nod as he dragged his feet towards the white-haired youth and shuffled right besides him. Besides, despite his protests Kyomu really did want that manga. Hikari wanted it too, and he'd be really upset if he didn't get it. And the only thing worse to Kyomu than crippling thirst was when his twin brother wasn't happy.

Decisions were hard to make. At least Kyomu always had his brother Hikari around to help him make them.

* * *

The door to the shop opened, the musk aroma of paper instantly assaulting the noses of the two boys. Hikari lead the way inside, Kyomu trailing behind him as the two looked around.

Amon's manga shop wasn't the best shop around. Wasn't even average, if they were being honest. Sub-par, really, but it was the only one that their parents would let them go to. Something they had said about the other shops having more "seedier" pieces of literature. Hikari and Kyomu hadn't know why a manga about plants would be so dangerous to them, but their parents had always vehemently shot down any attempts they had made to go to any other shop. Amon's was decent enough, though, so it mattered little in the end.

Even if the shop didn't have a single popular mainstream manga for sale.

And there was the owner of the shop himself, reclining on a chair behind the counter of the shop while watching a wall mounted TV. He'd idly tilted his head towards the door when he heard it opened, but he fell out of his chair the second he saw the faces of the two boys. He righted himself in an instant, straightening his shirt with a forced smile.

"Ah, there they are! My favorite regulars!" The lanky man leaned over the counter, the sunlight bleeding in from the windows glinting off of his dark sunglasses as he stared down at the two. "You here for the you-know-what?"

Hikari opened his mouth to answer, but Kyomu beat him to the punch by leaning over his shoulder and nodding his head rapidly. "Uh-huh! The newest volume of _Bright Night_!"

"And the compensation for me holding a copy under the counter for you two...?" Amon leered at Hikari, causing the boy to roll his eyes. He removed two things from his pocket: a crumpled and slightly soaked one-thousand yen bill, and a delicately folded picture. Both were handed to Amon, who hastily threw the bill into an already-opened cash register only to slowly unfold the picture. He let a small giggle out, carefully placing the picture under the counter. "Man, you two are the best! Autographed self-portraits of heroes go for a mint, and Gact is a really popular hero around these parts!"

"Hey, brother?" Kyomu tugged on Hikari's shoulder, causing him to immediately turn around. "I know mom said she didn't mind signing the pictures we keep taking of her, but don't you think she'd be mad if she found out we're using them for this?"

Hikari shrugged. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her." And if she actually agreed to just drop them off at the store they wouldn't have to go as far as to pull these kinds of shenanigans. Hikari knew her job as a professional hero was a very trying one that took away a lot of her time, but he felt it wouldn't have been that difficult to drop them off a few blocks closer than the usual drop-off spot.

"Well, a deal's a deal!" Amon reached under the counter yet again, though this time he pulled something out instead: a book with a highly detailed and colored cover on it. Both of the boys' eyes grew wide at the sight of the book, with Hikari being the first to grab the book from the storekeeper's hands.

"Alright!" he laughed, waving to book in the air. "We finally got it!" A sense of triumph filled Hikari as he held the book as far up as he could, with Kyomu joining the revelry by laughing along with him.

"Boy, you kids really like that one, huh?" Amon chuckled at the two's antics, rubbing the back of his head as he stared at the two.

"What's not to like about it!?" Hikari questioned. "It's an amazing story about a super-cool guy fighting the forces of darkness with his super-cool buddies and their super-cool bus! What's cooler than that!?" Kyomu silently nodded, smiling at the amusement his brother's antics brought him.

"Most of the other manga I have here..." Amon airily replied, gesturing to the hundreds of books lining the shelves that covered all the walls of the shop. "Besides, that particular manga is full plot holes and contrivances. All of the main characters have cliche personalities, and all of their Quirks are so overpowered that any fights that happen begin and end on the same page."

"Hey. Chapter fifteen had a two-pager," Kyomu defended.

"And boring fight scenes don't make it bad," Hikari added.

Amon just waved the children off. "It's not about the boredom, kid. The point of fight scenes is to establish a character's strengths and weaknesses, to help develop the characters' personalities through hardship and struggles. And yeah, excitement to drum up the enjoyment. It's hard to do all of that when the weakest buddy of the main character can blast away entire streets of goons with eye-beams." He flopped back down in his seat, interlacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back. "That manga won't make it past twenty chapters. You two would be better off if you just dumped it and found a better one."

"We have our reasons for liking it," Hikari said. And those reasons belonged to the two of them alone. They'd never abandon this manga for as long as it was still alive.

The owner of the store just scoffed. "Whatever. It's your money." With a yawn, he looked over to the TV mounted near him. His eyes widened when he saw what was on the screen. "Hey, kids," he called, "check this out."

The two brothers walked close enough to view the screen on the TV. The volume was muted, but it wasn't too difficult to make out what was happening. It was a news channel that was covering a small riot of villains were rampaging in a different part of town. There were multiple heroes visible on the screen already there to deter the threat, but one stood out to the two boys among all others: a masked woman in a skintight purple suit, with the english letters "GACT" emblazoned in gold across her chest.

Both of the brothers' shoulders slumped, with Kyomu being the first one to speak. "Mom's gonna be late in picking us up, isn't she?"

With a shake of his head, Hikari responded with a long, drawn-out sigh. "Yep..."

* * *

He couldn't take it anymore. It was too much for a single person to bear. Willpower had a limit to how much punishment it could endure, and Kyomu was reaching his own limits. Limits that had been stretched long ago. "I can't... I can't go on..." he had murmured, his eyes growing heavier and heavier with each passing second. His body, sprawled along the bench he laid on, grew weaker and weaker the longer his suffering continued.

This was surely the end. He couldn't picture a bleaker, crueler end for the world to deal him. An end so black that he may as well have been cast into the void itself. An end so-

"For the last time," Hikari grumbled, flicking Kyomu on the forehead, "you're not going to die of dehydration. I saw you go to that water fountain thirty minutes ago."

"It's not that, Hikari!" Kyomu raised the hand that gripped _Bright Night_ to his face, his fingers holding it open to the last page. "It left off on such a cliff hanger, bro! What kind of cruel author leaves something like this to be open to speculation until the next chapter comes out!?"

"Yeah, tell me about it." Hikari gave out a huff, crossing his arms. "Guess we'll just have to wait for the next chapter. Whenever that is."

"Ugh!" He flopped back down on the bench, both in disappointment and in exhaustion. When they had been dropped off here by their mother, they were instructed to return to this exact bench and wait for her the instant they purchased their manga. And, with a lack of anything better to do, the two twins had decided they may as well of read the manga they waited so long for.

They had finished it about three hours ago.

Kyomu didn't blame her, though. The life of a hero was an enduring one... at least according to the twins' mother. Fighting villains took a long time. And apparently there was a paperwork aspect to it afterwards...? Kyomu didn't really know, nor did Hikari. They really only had their mother's words to go off of, as the two never actually put any research into the life of a hero, nor did their mom ever speak to them the fine intricacies about her profession. That, what they saw on TV, and the very, _very_ few quips their mother said about hero work here and there.

"Why do you think mom's a hero, Hikari?" Kyomu suddenly asked, his head hanging off of the edge of the bench.

"Hm?" Hikari looked down at his brother. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm bored. And I know you are, too." Kyomu sat up to look his brother in the eyes. "What do you think?"

Hikari leaned his head back in thought, rubbing the side of his head in thought. "I dunno," he said. "I mean, she has a really cool Quirk. Maybe she just wanted to use it for good?"

"But dad has an even cooler Quirk than her," Kyomu argued, "and he's an accountant."

Hikari hummed. "True. The money?" he wondered.

"Dad makes more than her."

The result of that statement was a frustrated growl from the white-haired boy's throat. "Look, I don't know her life story. And right now, I really don't care."

"You're just mad because she's late."

Hikari said nothing in response, and instead just quietly grumbled to himself. Kyomu laughed, hiding a smile with his hand. Hikari looked as if he was going to retaliate in response to Kyomu's mirth, but the sound of squealing tires made both of them freeze. They looked towards the sound, both of their eyes widening as a black car screeched to a halt in front of them. Not a second passed before the driver's door was violently opened, a human-shaped blur climbing out and whizzing towards them.

"Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh boys I'm so sorry!" The two brothers were quickly enveloped by a hug before the two could react, both being pressed into the chest of a blonde woman dressed in a purple skin-tight suit. They both would have protested this action, but the hug the two brothers found themselves in happened to be so tight they found it difficult to breath.

"M-mom..." Kyomu ground out, though it seemed him speaking only encouraged the woman to squeeze the both of them harder.

"I just- I tried really hard but there was a villain attack and I had to fill out a million reports back at the agency and I got really caught up with the paperwork-"

Hikari let out a weak cough. "Mother..."

"I just can't bear the thought of leaving my two babies alone like this in the middle of nowhere and I'm a irresponsible mother I don't know how the two of you will ever forgive-"

"Mom... the- the car door..."

"Hm?" The woman let the two boys go, which led to them taking great gulps of air in as they heavily gasped on the bench. She looked behind at the car she had exited, her purple eyes wincing when she saw that the door to the driver's seat was nearly torn off its hinges. "Ah, sh-shoot. I forgot to turn my Quirk off, didn't I?"

"It's fine..." Kyomu groaned, nursing his sore ribs.

"It's not fine," the woman huffed, picking the two boys up with a single hand. She used the other to open the door to the backseat, and gingerly placed the two boys down and buckled them up in seatbelts. She then climbed into the driver seat and started the car, pulling it out of the parking space and driving away. The broken door was stuck in place, and she had no choice but to grit her teeth at the sound of the bottom of the door grinding against the street as she drove away.

She looked back at the two boys, a wavering smile on her face. The both looked dazed and tired, but otherwise looked find. "Sooo... how was your day?" she asked nervously, a bead of sweat going down her face.

Kyomu looked at his brother, who did the same in turn. They had a lot to complain about, having been left on that bench for so long. They had even more to complain about seeing as their own mother almost crushed the life out of them. The two of them locked eyes, and equal understanding coming between them.

"Oh, you know. Nothing out of the ordinary," Kyomu said. She was still their mother at the end of the day, after all, and Kyomu knew she tried her best. He couldn't fault her for that.

Hikari laughed and nodded. "Yeah, what brother said."

A look of relief came over the mother's face. "Oh, thank goodness," she breathed, focusing her eyes on the road. "Now hang on, boys! We're gonna get home as fast as possible so I can make you the best dinner I can to make up for this!"

 _That_ caused the two boys to freeze in alarm. "Dad's not cooking tonight?" Kyomu asked, a slight whimper in his tone. Besides him, Hikari let out an audible gulp.

"He's working late, so I'm going to have to take over," she explained. "But don't worry! I've been brushing up on my cooking skills, so I'm sure I won't burn all of the food this time!"

Kyomu's face grew green. "Hey, bro?"

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor. Kill me now and spare me the torment."

"Only if you do me first."


	2. Chapter 2

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 2- Indifference to difference**

* * *

Sunshine Kindergarten (little brother to Sunshine Elementary and even littler brother to Sunshine Junior High) was, as the name suggested, a public educational facility where the youths of the current generation received the most basic of fundamental education. There wasn't actually anything particular with the school, but some parents considered that a good thing. It was, in all intents and purposes, one of the if not the most average kindergarten anybody could find within Japan.

Or at least as average and ordinary as one could get when most of the students had abnormal abilities that obliterated the boundaries of normality, but then again Quirks had been around long enough that those boundaries had long since been forgotten. Nowadays Quirks _were_ the norm.

It was also the school Kyomu and Hikari went to, as it was the closest school to their home. They liked it, for the most part. They got to meet all sorts of new people and learn all sorts of things, which was much preferable to the boring life afforded to average four-year-olds at home. All in all, life was good. It would be perfect if it weren't for one small thing...

"Shinka."

Both brothers looked up from their desks at the pruned woman staring down at them. "Me or my brother?" Kyomu asked.

"Both of you." The old teacher pointed down to the single piece of paper they each had on their desk, a scowl on her face. "I gave this worksheet to the entire class two minutes ago. Would you care to explain to me why you two haven't worked on it yet?"

"'Cause we already finished it, teach," Hikari informed, face resting in elbow as he looked at the rest of the class.

The teacher blink. "What? Really?"

Kyomu sighed in affirmation. This was the only problem the two had with school: the work they were given was incredibly easy. So easy, in fact, that the two always finished way ahead of the class. So fast in fact that teachers were always skeptical of them, and some students even accused them of cheater. They were baseless accusations, and the two brothers didn't much care for them either way. They really only cared about getting through the schoolwork.

It seemed that this was one of those moments where the teacher was skeptical. They never seemed to just accept the fact they were so good at this.

Kyomu looked at his classmates along with Hikari, the two casting each other a confused glance. Kyomu himself didn't see what was so hard about the worksheet; it was just a series of simple addition and subtraction questions, thirty on each side of the paper. He'd gone through it in a flash, and, seeing as he had finished at the same time as Kyomu, Hikari had about as much difficulty as he had. Yet, when the two looked around, classmates seemed to be slowly going through it, or, to their even greater confusion, were even stuck on problems and held their hair in frustration.

Maybe this was why teachers were so skeptical when the students had this much difficulty.

The teacher picked up their papers and gave them a once over, sighed, and pocketed the papers. "With you two, I'm not so surprised." She looked around at the class with a grimace. "I expected this assignment to take no more than twenty minutes, but it seems like half of the class is struggling. Could you two help your classmates since you're already finished?"

The two brothers considered her words, looked at each other, shrugged, and looked back at the teacher. "Sure," Kyomu said.

"We'd be happy to help them," Hikari added. Anything to alleviate boredom.

The teacher smiled. "Ah, thank the both of you. Just walk around and help anybody that seems like they're struggling, but don't actually do the work for them. They won't learn anything like that." The teacher waddled away with those instructions, causing the two brothers to rise from their seats.

"I don't see what the big problem is," Hikari grumbled to his brother as he looked at their classmates. "The lesson was easy enough to take in, and the math is so simple we went through it like nothing. Why is everybody else having such a hard time with this?"

"Who knows?" Kyomu shrugged. "But we volunteered to help, so we'll help. Uh..." He looked around, rubbing his head. "Who should we help? It looks like everybody needs it."

"How about that one?" Hikari pointed to a child who had eight eyes, six of which were focused on the paper. The other two were just staring in aimless directions, and a bead of drool was leaking out from his mouth.

Kyomu visibly blanched. "I mean, if you want to. I'll find somebody else," he said.

Rolling his eyes, Hikari walked towards the multi-eyed student, letting out a low yawn as he went. Kyomu, for his part, couldn't decide who to help. While he'd talked with most of his peers, he didn't actually know any of them on a good level. And there wasn't a single one that seemed to have a more pressing need than the other.

An idea struck him suddenly, causing him to grab his pencil and place it on his desk. He spun it, watching the point go around and around until it stopped. He followed the point with his eyes, seeing that the pencil pointed to a girl sitting at the end of the class.

He frowned. He... couldn't really see if she was having difficulty or not. Her face, like everybody else's face, was completely blank at the work in front of her. The pencil, likewise, was moving at a pace that suggested she was either moving extremely slowly or drawing doodles. Shrugging, he made his way over to her, weaving his way through the desks of others.

He had managed to approach her from behind, and looked over her shoulder at the paper. She was making a decent pace, he supposed. She was on the twentieth one right now, which meant she was actually doing much better than most others, but it was still a slow pace when compared to him or Hikari. He'd just have to fix that.

"Hey." The girl jumped slightly and looked behind her at the voice that startled her. Kyomu closed his eyes and smiled, waving a hand at her. "I finished the work early, so the teacher said I should help somebody. I'm Shinka Kyomu."

"Oh." She blinked up at him, and then nodded his way. "Aren't you the one who is always with the white-haired guy?"

Kyomu's smile almost faltered when he heard her voice. It was... well, unique was a word. Feminine, but also kind of low and raspy. Maybe she was sick? Either that or a weird Quirk. "Oh, that's Hikari. He's my brother," he explained.

"Ah. That's why you two look the same." Kyomu pulled up a nearby chair and sat down as the strange girl looked him up and down. "Kyomu and Hikari, huh? So you're twins but with different hair and eye colors?"

He chuckled, twirling a lock of his long, black hair in his fingers. "Probably a Quirk thing. We don't know," Kyomu airily replied. "Of course, we don't really have our Quirks yet... our parents say we should get them soon, though. Most people get them around our age, and most people in the class already have them, right?"

"True," the girl agreed. "Maybe you two will get cool Quirks. Mine just lets me change my voice."

"Oh, well that's... that nice, I guess." He'd seen worse Quirks among their class. He'd seen better ones, too, but the one she had wasn't the worst one around. "We should probably get some progress done on this math, though, huh? So let's see what you're trying to do here..."

"Uh..." She looked down at the piece of paper, the small smile she previously had shrinking slightly. "I guess we should..."

The rest of the time they had spent together had been Kyomu helping to girl with her work, though it seemed like she had a strong enough grasp on the subject that he didn't need to actually do much other than help her through the errant problem here and there. He didn't mind staying, though. It was nice talking to another person his age.

Eventually, when he felt she would get by fine on her own, he left her and went to another desk to help another student. This one, unlike the girl, hadn't been successful at all. They had just refused to try and learn how to do the math and had just shot Kyomu dirty glares every time he helped. In fact, this was the case with most of the children. It even got to the point where some would give him those looks while leaning over their worksheets in order to prevent him from helping, despite the fact that he could see they couldn't understand how to do the math. This was a process that repeated until Kyomu had seen that fifteen minutes had gone by based on the clock above the room's doorway. So, expecting the teacher to call time for the class any second now, he turned around to make his way towards his own desk.

 _"Is everybody this slow?"_ Kyomu thought to himself as he approached his desk. He saw that Hikari already sitting in his own desk, staring expectantly at Kyomu as he returned. _"That first girl was the only one that accepted my help, and was one of the only ones to understand the math... why can't they just get it like we can?"_

"Sooo..." Hikari drawled as Kyomu sat down in his seat, "how'd you do?"

"How'd _you_ do?" Kyomu asked back.

"Didn't help a single person except the eye guy," he reported. "You?"

"Same," he said.

Hikari nodded. "Great."

Kyomu waited for his brother to continue, but instead of that he balled his hand into a fist and rested his head against it. Seeing this, Kyomu was about to say something when a loud ringing cut him off before he could even start.

The other students around them got up excitedly, with the teacher yelling at all of them to settle down. "Is it recess time already?" she asked, looking at the clock. "Wow, time flies."

Hikari immediately rose up from his seat, gesturing to his brother. "Kyomu, come on. We need to go before the other students clog the doorway."

Kyomu only smiled. His twin always did hate waiting. "Okay!"

* * *

Recess, asides from lunch and the end of the day, was about the only thing kindergartners had to look forwards to seeing as most children didn't enjoy education all that much this early in the learning process. Kyomu and Hikari were naturally exempt from this rule, but a break every now and then was appreciated.

The playground itself was modest enough, seeing as they were a small class. Some swings, a seesaw, some monkey bars, the usual. The two rarely ever touched those, though. They were usually already in use by other children, and the two preferred talking to each other instead anyways. That was the pattern that repeated itself ever since the two had begun learning there, and it was one that Hikari had suspected to continue until they went to a new school.

Today was an exceptional day, however, considering the eye-opener the two of them had seen last class. So as a result the two were found forlornly sitting still on the swings and staring at the ground.

"Hikari. Hey, Hikari. Hik-"

"I'm right here, brother," Hikari said. "You don't need to repeat yourself."

"Oh," Kyomu mumbled. "... Hikari?"

"Yes?"

"Are all the other kids stupid? Or is there something wrong with us."

After a long moment, Hikari sighed. "There's nothing wrong with us," he said. "If there was, our parents would have told us. We'd _know_ if there was a problem with us. It's just everybody else that's different," he said.

"But even the teachers look at us weird," Kyomu argued. "Doesn't that mean-"

"There's nothing wrong with us," Hikari repeated, sliding off the swing. "At the very least, I know there's nothing wrong with you. And since we're the same, that means there's nothing wrong with me." He then smiled at Kyomu, who looked up at him with wide eyes from his swing. "So don't go thinking that, brother. You'll make me worried."

He then turned around, placing his hands into his pockets. "I'm gonna go on a walk. We'll catch up when next class starts," he said. "And don't think so little of yourself, brother. You're a wonderful person. Everybody else is just dull."

Kyomu remained silent, staring off at Hikari's back as he walked away from him. Even now, he didn't bother to actually use the swing for its intended purpose. He only sat silently staring after his brother as he disappeared from sight.

"If you say so, Hikari..."

* * *

Isolation.

Hikari didn't have any right using that word. He had a family. Parents. Kyomu. In no way was he alone no matter where he went. And that word was exclusively used to describe people that were alone.

So why did he and Kyomu feel so alone?

This was a question he kept asking himself as he paced along the concrete sidewalk next to the playground where all the other children were playing. The children that went out of their ways to pretend the two of them didn't exist, barring a select few here and there. And they always stared at them, too, with eyes full of such negative feelings. Things like hate and jealousy. The same looks he had been given when he had just been trying to help people. He assumed that the same happened with Kyomu.

This wouldn't even be a problem if their peers actually learned something while attending school here. None of them were like him and his brother, even the few that were polite to him. He just couldn't understand what the problem was, or why it affected them all. The teachers even seemed to expect it with how many times they went over lessons over and over for seemingly no reason. If anything, they treated the brothers like something was different with them.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with them. Nothing whatsoever. So why were they so different?

He gasped softly as he felt something suddenly shove into him, causing him to fall to the ground with a grunt. He quickly rose back to his feet, turning to what had shoved him. He saw another boy looking angrily at him, his fists clenched in fury and his face wrinkled in rage.

"Can I help you?" Hikari softly asked, dusting off his white shirt as he looked at the other boy.

"You annoy me," the boy grunted. "You and your brother. You annoy all of us. You two are always acting like you're so smarter than everybody else."

Wariness began to set into him. "I don't even know your name, and I'm positive I've never even talked to you before now," Hikari said, narrowing his eyes at the boy. "And in what way do we act like we're smarter than you?"

"You two always finish your work before everybody else!" the boy raged, roughly shoving Hikari once more. "You think you're so special because you manage to finish everything faster before we do! I bet you both have Quirks that let you cheat!"

"We don't even have our Quirks yet." A sense of aggravation began to build up in him as the boy stepped closer. "But if you want me to say I'm sorry, then I'm sorry."

"Sorry that you keep making all of us look bad?" the boy asked.

"No. Sorry you're too stupid to keep up with us."

The boy shoved Hikari again. Hard. He fell down to the ground, but quickly recovered and rose again. Not even two seconds later he was shoved once more, though this time he managed to keep his footing. "Stop it," Hikari said. The boy ignored him and shoved him yet again.

The wariness from earlier soon turned into a spike of irritation. He was growing more angry by the second, to the point his skin was beginning to itch. "Seriously, stop it." Another shove, causing one of his eyes to twitch. "Come on, just stop!" The boy refused to listen, and shoved him once again.

"I said..." Hikari growled, grabbing one of the hands that kept assaulting him, "stop doing that!" All his anger started to boil into his arms as the boy tried to wrench his hand away. When Hikari refused to let go of it, the boy tried kicking him in the shins.

Hikari twisted the arm as a result.

* * *

Kyomu sighed, kicking the ground as lightly as he could. He felt the swing move slightly as a result, but the meager amount of wind that hit his face from the movement didn't do anything to make him feel better.

He never liked it when Hikari was upset at something. He always tried smiling at Kyomu to reassure him, and that helped a great deal, but that didn't excuse the fact that he was upset at something. But what was Kyomu supposed to do when that something upsetting him was the other children? And even some of the teachers?

He squeezed the metal chains supporting his swing with a low, frustrated grunt. He hoped recess would end soon so he could be back with his brother. He hoped school itself would end soon so they could just go home and get away from all these people that looked at them so weirdly. All they did was make them both upset.

There was a sudden creaking sound where he was gripping the chains, which made him flinch back and release the chains. Upon inspection, he saw that there were heavy cracks and dents where he had been gripping the chains.

Slowly, Kyomu looked down at his hands, which seemed completely fine despite the fact he'd just crushed iron chains. He blinked, and then shook his hands. Still fine. "What the...?"

"AAAIIIGGHH!"

The black-haired child's faces froze in shock when he heard that scream. It was a terrible scream, one full of anguish and pain, and so high-pitched that his ears almost burst from hearing it. His head snapped up towards the sound of the scream, Kyomu's face growing even paler than it already was at the sight.

There was a boy kneeling down in front of Hikari. The boy's arm was in the brother's hand, twisted and mangled to the point bone was sticking out of it and blood was running down the entire limb. A profuse amount of tears streamed down the boy's face as he wailed in pain at his ruined arm, the other children around them running away from the two. Hikari, covered in small specks of blood that had splashed on him as a result of destroying the arm, could only stare in Kyomu's direction. The only emotion Kyomu could see on his brother's face was confusion.

* * *

"Oh, this is terrible. This is absolutely terrible..." As a full-time hero and a mother, she had experienced many grievances in her life, but none of them had ever come close to something on this scale. She never even imagined her son would do something so gruesome.

"Mrs. Shinka-"

"Oh, my poor baby Hikari, why did this have to happen?" She was a good person, and she tried her best raising her two boys. She knew that they wouldn't hurt a fly, so the knowledge of what Hikari had done to that poor boy riveted her to the very core. She remembered dropping the phone when she had been called at the agency, and then sprinting to her car and peeling out of the parking lot as soon as she heard. Oh, she just knew the hero she worked under was going to yell at her for up and leaving without any explanation, but she didn't care! Not when something like this happens to her baby!

"Mrs. Shinka-"

How did something like this even happen!? Was Hikari just so naturally strong, or did he have some kind of strength Quirk? Maybe he had inherited hers? Or, or what if the child he hurt had some kind of weak bone disease and her poor child had harmed a cripple!? Oh, that would just be the worst!

"Mrs. Shinka!" The woman in question calmed down with the doctor sitting across from her shouted her name. "I know you're stressed, ma'am, but sitting there in a cold sweat isn't going to help anybody."

"I-I know. I'm sorry," she apologized, bowing her head. She was grateful enough to be sitting here instead of in a school principle's office getting her ear chewed off by a furious mother. Thankfully, a society where a majority of the population had fantastic abilities suffered these kinds of issues constantly. She'd been told to take her boy straight to the hospital to have him checked out for a possible Quirk awakening as soon as she arrived, partly to make sure he wouldn't accidentally hurt anybody else, mostly because everybody was too scared to be near him. At least he had his brother in the waiting room to keep him company, bless his heart. The look on her poor baby's face made it look like he needed the support.

Hikari had just blankly stared at his hands the entire trip here. He only showed signs of consciousness when he brother talked to him in the car.

The balding doctor hummed, adjusting his glasses as he sat one leg over the other, resting a file on it and opening it. His eyes scanned the contents before he spoke, not bothering to raise his head. "Now, an important part of determining if this was a Quirk awakening is to get as accurate description of the parents' Quirks as possible, Mrs. Shinka. More often than not a child's Quirk is either one of the two parents' or a mixture of the two of them. Although, in rarer cases an entirely new Quirk is formed, and in even rarer cases the two Quirks are merged together into a multi-power Quirk, though those are almost none-existent. We need as much data as you can provide us on you and your husband's Quirks in order to ascertain the condition of your child," the doctor explained.

"Of course," Mrs. Shinka nodded.

"Now, it says here on your Quirk registration sheet that your Quirk is 'Genetic Hardening'." His eyebrows raised slightly at the name. "Could you elaborate on what exactly your Quirk does?"

"Oh! Uh, let me think." She put a hand to her head as she pursed her lips in thought. "Um, basically my Quirk... well, 'refines', I guess, my genetic make-up. It improves upon my genetic structure whenever I turn it on, which significantly enhances all of my physical abilities. My body goes back to normal when I turn it off. I'm also able to touch others and temporarily harden their genes as well, giving them as physical boost as well. All the other heroes at the agency always compliment me on it and I'm usually placed as a support member for the other heroes to buff them all and strengthen their Quirks whenever something big happens. Villain fights and rescue and all that."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh." The doctor scribbled something down in his notes. "And your husband... Akira Shinka, is that right?" The mother nodded in response. "Right, on his registration form it says that his Quirk is labeled as 'Space Bending'. Could you fill me in on his Quirk?"

"Doesn't it say on the form what it does?"

"It does, Mrs. Shinka, but it's rather vague in its description. I'm just trying to gather as much information as possible in order to make the most accurate assessment I can, you understand."

She nodded, and then frowned. "To be honest, I haven't really seen my husband use it all that much. He's an accountant, you see, so he doesn't really ever have much reason to use it. From what I've seen, though, it lets him... I think he used it to kind of squash the space between him and a cup of coffee once so he could reach it?" She sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, doctor, he just doesn't use it that much and he never talks about it."

"I understand, I understand. Don't worry," the doctor assured. "Besides, I think I have enough here as it is... yes, yes that would most definitely explain it."

"Explain what, doctor?"

He took a deep breath. "Now, before I say anything else, know that we have multiple tests we perform on children in order to verify what kind of Quirk they have, and to make sure their Quirk was even awakened in the first place. We put your son through every test we have available here, and all of the results came back negative."

"Negative?" The woman's face scrunched in confusion. "But that doesn't make any sense. He's already four years old, and if that isn't the cause... oh, don't tell me he's...!"

The doctor gave a reassuring laugh, raising a hand to calm the woman. "Relax, Mrs. Shinka, relax. Your son is not Quirkless. One of the tests we perform is an x-ray on the patients foot to verify the amount of bones present in their pinky toe." He raised a picture of a skeletal foot for her to see. Noticeable on the picture was the fact that the pinky toe had a large red circle drawn around it, and that there were only two bones present. "He lacks the third bone that is the telltale sign of being Quirkless, which almost guarantees that he has a Quirk."

The mother breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's nice to hear, doctor, but that doesn't explain how Hikari was able to hurt somebody like that so easily."

"I know, and I'm getting to that. Now, there are rare cases of a child unlocking a Quirk that none of the tests we provide can detect, but with this case in particular I highly doubt that is the issue present." He closed the file, finally looking up at the woman's eyes. "Tell me, Mrs. Shinka. Have you ever heard of QBTBE?"

"'QBTBE'?" She shook her head. "No, I haven't."

"I'm not surprised. QBTBE, or 'Quirk-Bases Trait Bleed Effect', is the process of a person's Quirk causing certain abnormal traits in their offspring that have nothing to do with their actual Quirk. Usually this only happens to those who have a parent with a Mutant-type Quirk such as yourself. Are you following me so far?"

"Yes, doctor."

"Now, almost always this only occurs if the mother of the patient in question is a Mutant-type while the father is an Emitter or a Transformation-type, or if both are Mutant-types, though there are exceptions. The abnormal traits of the mother are passed down to the child, something like sharp teeth or skin color or what have you as an example, and the child will manifest a Quirk that has nothing to due with the abnormal trait that was passed down to them." He held up a single finger. "Mind you, this is an extremely rare occurrence. Normally a human's body would only change radically in order to accommodate a Mutant-type Quirk, as any change whatsoever for a Emitter or a Transformer would be useless unless it directly correlated with their Quirk. If you boil it all down, it's really just a case of a non-malignant mutation that doesn't do any real harm to the patient. Your boy, however, is a special case."

The mother nodded slowly, her head throbbing slightly. That had been a long-winded explanation, most of which had gone over her head, but she had managed to grasp the gist of what the man was saying. "What's so special about Hikari's case?" she inquired.

"As I've said, we put him through all of the tests we had to determine if he had a Quirk or not. Some of those tests include ones to test his physical and mental abilities to see if he had an invisible Quirk such as enhanced strength or something along those lines." He opened the folder once more, his eyes focusing on a particular file. "While we determined he had no Quirk whatsoever, his scores for the physical and mental tests were... astounding, to say the least. Would you be surprised to hear that he has the average intelligence of a ten year-old despite being four?"

She shook her head. "No, not really. He and his brother always complain about them finishing their work ahead of the entire class. I actually had to talk to their teacher one time because she was suspicious of them cheating on their work to get done so early."

The doctor hummed. "That's not surprising. His physical traits are above what he should have as well, ranging along the lines of a fully-grown adult. And if his brother shows signs of being similar to him, then that more than confirms what I have to say. I just need one more piece of information." He looked back up at her. "Hikari and his brother are twins, which means that they were born at the same time, correct?"

"Yes, that's right."

"And did you have your Quirk activated for any extended length of period while you were pregnant with them?"

She nodded. "Oh, that takes me back. Me and my husband were stressing over money because of all the things you needed to take care of a baby, you know, like clothes and supplies and such. We both put in overtime in our respective work areas to save up money, and there were stretches where I didn't bother ever turning my Quirk off due to me only leaving the office hours at a time for rest. I think the longest time I went without turning it off while pregnant was the first few months."

"I see." The doctor murmured a few sentences to himself, nodded, and then fixed the mother with a serious glare. "There's nothing wrong with your boy, Mrs. Shinka. In fact, it's actually the opposite."

She tilted her head. "I'm not following."

"I'll try to make this as simple as possible. Your Quirk has the ability to bolster the genetics of either the user or anybody they choose for it to affect, dramatically boosting their natural abilities. I say 'bolster' because it multiplies the effectiveness of the genes already present."

"And? I'm still not following."

"The first stages of pregnancy are when the genes and traits of the baby are established, and the actual creature, or creatures in the case of twins, are constructed," he explained. "The stages afterwards are simply growth and development. You neglected to turn your Quirk off during those first stages, however. The genes they were supplemented with were enhanced by your Quirk, meaning that the enhanced genes became their normal base genes." A look of understand soon came to the mother's face, causing the doctor to nod. "In layman's terms, Mrs. Shinka, your sons were born permanently and irreversibly enhanced beyond normal human ability due to your Quirk. It isn't that noticeable now since they're so young, but as they grow up it'll become more apparent. The fact that they are already outpacing other students and are able to accidentally inflict this much harm on a normal human their age already confirms this."

She dully nodded, forcing her mouth to close. It had dropped open halfway from the doctor's prognosis due to shock. "Is there anything to do about it?" she asked.

"There's nothing _to_ do," the doctor bluntly stated. "I know it may seem a bit callous for me to say it like this, the foundation of modern human civilization prides itself on treating everybody as equals after all, but this is a unique circumstance where the fact of the matter is your boys are just naturally stronger and smarter than the average human, to the point that only those with Quirks can keep up with them." He gave a small laugh at the thought of that. "Though I imagine that will change once they actually get their own Quirks, which I imagine will also be enhanced in strength."

"Ah. Now I see..." She supposed that wasn't the worst thing in the world. In fact, she felt like she should be happy for her boys. But that sounded wrong, saying that she was happy that her boys were just naturally better than others. But it wasn't like they could help something they were born with. Her head started to hurt again as she began to contemplate all of the ramifications around what she had just been told.

The doctor, sensing the woman's distress, gave her a reassuring smile. "I know it's a lot to take in, but I honestly wouldn't worry about it, Mrs. Shinka. It's not like anything has changed as a result of this, after all. You just need to make sure they don't accidentally hurt anybody else from now on and all should be well."

"Yeah... yeah, I guess so." It was nice to have the situation summed up to the point it wasn't actually a situation, but her mind was still reeling from the revelation.

"Good. Now, was there anything else you wanted today?"

She sighed. "No, doctor, thank you. That will be all."

* * *

Hikari gave off a listless sigh, throwing down yet another magazine. He'd had bad days, sure, but none had ever been as rough as this one.

It wasn't bad enough he accidentally twisted that guy's arm, no, he had to be picked up from school and taken to the hospital by a fretting mother. Then he had to sit through six hours' worth of tests, all the while agonizing over what would happen to him once he returned to the school. And another hour had been spent in the waiting room while his mother had been talking to the doctor that had examined him, and he had just run out of reading material to tide him over.

He looked to his side at his brother, who gave him a grin when he noticed him staring. He gave a weak grin back while shifting in his seat. At least his brother was there to help him through it all. He couldn't imagine anything less.

"... Well, look on the bright side," Kyomu offered. "The guy you hurt had a regeneration Quirk, so he'll be completely fine by tomorrow. You probably won't have too bad a punishment."

"That's too bad," Hikari grumbled, frowning.

Kyomu tilted his head in confusion. "Are you really that upset about it?"

Hikari shook his head. "No, I mean that he had a regeneration Quirk."

A slight pause between the both of them. "That's kind of mean, brother..." Kyomu said, giving off a weak and nervous laugh.

He huffed in response, crossing his arms. His classmate having his arm broken for a while would have taught him not to shove other people without a good reason, but he supposed that the brief experience would serve well enough. Besides, it would likely lessen whatever punishment he may receive due to the fact he hadn't caused any lasting damage. He'd call himself fortunate, but then again if he was fortunate none of this would have never happened to begin with.

"Hey, Hikari?"

"Yeah?" he grunted.

"Why did you hurt him so bad anyways?" Hikari turned to his brother, an irritated look on his face. Kymou raised his hands in response. "Hey, relax! I know you said he kept bothering you and pushing you around. But why did you break his arm like that? You really scared me, you know."

Hikari opened his mouth, and then closed it with a sigh. After thinking over his words, he opened his mouth once again. "I'm sorry, Kyomu. I didn't mean to frighten my brother like that." He raised his hand, flexing it a few times. "But it just twisted so _easily_ , you know? He felt as brittle as a stick of pocky. All I wanted to do was pry his arm off of me when he grabbed my shirt."

"Oh." Kyomu nodded his head in understanding, tilting it from side to side in thought. "Is it your Quirk? Ooh!" He leaned closer to Hikari, a twinkle in his dark-blue eyes. "Did he say you have a super-strength Quirk!? That'd be really neat!"

The white-haired boy shot down all the hopes in his brother with a shake of his head. "The doctor said I don't have a Quirk yet." Kyomu instantly deflated, letting out a small "aww". "I don't know, Kyomu. He said he had a few ideas and that he wanted to talk to mom. We'll probably have an answer by then."

"I guess that's nice." The black-haired brother rested his head on his palm, his feet openly kicking in the air from his seat. "Hey, brother? When do you think we'll get our Quirks?"

"I don't know," he answered, red eyes shifting towards the white wall in front of them.

"But we should get them soon, shouldn't we?" Kyomu asked. "Practically everybody has their Quirk by the time they're our age! Almost everybody in our class has their Quirks, our teacher has a Quirk, our parents have Quirks, everybody has a Quirk! Everybody but us."

"I'm sure they will come soon, Kyomu. Just be patient."

He pouted and crossed his arms. "Hmph. Okay, but I don't want to wait for long." His ears perked up when he heard a door opening, and turned his head to see their mother walk towards them. "Oh, hey, Hikari. Mom's here."

"Huh?" He looked up, blinking at the woman looking down at them. "Oh, cool. Is it time to go yet, mom? We've been here forever," he complained.

She gave a stiff nod. "Yeah, the doctor cleared us. We can go home now."

"Yay!" Kyomu hopped off of the chair he sat on, stretching his back. "We've been here so long that it's already dark out! I want to go home and eat dinner!"

"Agreed," Hikari replied, stepping out of his chair with a small groan. He really had been sitting in place for too long. "Hey, mom? Did the doctor find out what was wrong with me?"

The tall woman bit her lip, taking her sons by the hands. "We figured it out, hon, and we'll talk about it when we get home, okay? But right now I'm in the same mindset that your brother is in and want to leave right now."

"Sure. That's fine." Being in complete agreement with his brother and mother, Hikari allowed himself to be dragged by the hand away from the waiting room, his ever-jubilant brother the only thing keeping his spirits up. His eyes did linger on the chair he had been sitting at, however. At the hand-shaped imprint he had left in the arm-rest.

In the end, he didn't think much of it. He just wanted to get back home with his family and forget about this day once his head hit the pillow.

"And sons?" his mother asked, stopping just shy of reaching the door to look back at the both of them. "If I were to tell you that you both were... different than others... would you be okay?"

Hikari froze, not knowing how to respond to that question. He looked to his brother for help, and then widened his eyes when he saw him smiling and giving him a thumbs-up.

He smiled as well, and then turned back to his mother. "I think we'd be fine with that."


	3. Chapter 3

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 3- Light**

* * *

The next day found Hikari at his family's home. Alone. Parents were at work and Kyomu wasn't there because it was a Wednesday, so there was school. School for every single child except for Hikari, because apparently breaking somebody's arm was grounds for a week-long expulsion. Likely would have been a month if it weren't for the fact that the person he'd injured could regenerate.

In Hikari's opinion he should have gotten off completely free since the person he'd hurt was the aggressor, but he wasn't the principal of the school.

So here he was, completely on his own in his own home with little to do outside of watching TV or wandering aimlessly on the internet. And the TV was the closest thing in his direct vicinity, so he'd automatically hovered over to the couch and sat down. His feet were lazily propped over the edge and the four year-old tiredly grasped at the remote at his side to turn on the television.

" **HAA-HA-HA!** " He wasn't even surprised that signature, boisterous laughter was the first thing that assaulted his ears the second he turned the TV on. The large, muscular hero on display in a red, white, and blue costume holding a villain up in the air with a single hand with a large smile plastered over his face was half of what the news showed most days. Hikari figured that's the kind of attention being the number one hero entailed. "Have no fear, citizens! Why? Because I-!"

The TV was shut off the moment Hikari hit the power button at the top. He'd seen enough news stories and articles of All Might that he didn't need a daily dosage of the hero. Not that he didn't appreciate his work, of course. But he didn't like the man enough to want to see him every single day.

The same could not be said for three-quarters of Japan's population.

The rest three hours had been a blur of Hikari finding whatever he could to occupy his time, which wasn't much outside of web surfing and napping. Through all that time killing he'd found that he was growing hungry, so naturally he'd eventually found himself in the kitchen. Wanting for something warm, he'd opened the fridge and taken out the item nearest his hand: a bento box. He'd then sluggishly closed the fridge, shuffled to the microwave, and tossed the bento in and started it up.

 _"I gotta put up with this for a whole week?"_ he thought to himself as his fingers tapped away at the top of the microwave, his bleary eyes barely focused on digital clock on it's side as it counted down. _"Ugh. So bored... shouldn't Kyomu be done with school soon? This would actually be bearable if he were here, but he didn't go and break someone's arm, did he?"_ His taps became noticeably louder at the memory of the kid that had harassed him.

 _"He was the aggressor. It was self-defense. How was I supposed to know I was strong enough to break his arm? He didn't even suffer that long._ I'm _the one that had to go all the way to the hospital covered in blood."_ Hikari frowned and began tapping at the microwave's clock. _"Why's this gotta take so long to heat up, anyways? It's a bento, not a-"_

There was a disturbance around where the clock was. Hikari thought that he was so unfocused that he thought his eyes were playing tricks at first, but when he actually looked at the clock and waved his hand over it he saw the disturbance again. The blue-green, digital numbers wavered and dimmed when he moved his fingers over the clock. White eyebrows furrowing, he hovered his fingers directly over the numbers. They distorted to a point he couldn't even recognize them as numbers, and then they dimmed so much that he couldn't even tell if the clock was on or not anymore.

And then something happened that almost made him jump back. Something began passing through the plastic of the clock and towards Hikari's fingers. Not a solid or even a liquid, but a gaseous-like substance that flowed in a liquid-like state that he could barely tell what it was. It shined with a white light and slowly wrapped around his fingers, slowly disappearing as all the substance was absorbed into his hand.

He quickly moved his arm away from the microwave. The clock returned to normal.

 _"... Okay?"_ He lightly shook his hand and flexed his fingers. They felt alright, and they looked fine enough. He didn't feel any noticeable difference, either. _"Was that all in my head? Am I really that bored that I'm starting to hallucinate? Or-"_

A white beam of light shot out from the tip of his index finger and directly hit the microwave. It immediately exploded, causing Hikari to yelp out and fall straight onto the kitchen floor. He blinked rapidly and heavily, looking up at the now destroyed and flaming microwave. His eyes then slowly trailed down to his right hand which had fired the beam, and very slowly he placed that hand into his pocket as he scooted away from the wrecked machine.

 _"I... guess I'm not getting that bento..."_

* * *

"So the doctors are saying it's an Emitter Quirk?" Kyomu asked, legs quickly kicking up and down as he looked to the side at his brother.

"Yeah," he calmly answered, elbow resting against the window of the car and his head resting in his palm, his eyes staring out at his overly-excited brother from the corners. "Apparently I can control light. To what degree and to what limit, we have no idea. They just ran a bunch of tests on me and gave a basic description."

"Oh man, that's soooooo cool..." And for two reasons, too. The first was that his brother finally developed his Quirk! And a really cool sounding one that let him do stuff with light! He didn't even know what kind of stuff he could do with a Quirk like that, but to Kyomu it sounded awesome!

The second reason was that Hikari was his twin, which meant that they were closely related enough that, since Hikari got a Quirk, Kyomu was all but guaranteed to get one now!

"I just wish you didn't need to destroy our microwave in the process of discovering your Quirk..." their mother sighed from the front seat of the car, both hands firmly on the wheel as weaved between traffic at a slightly-unreasonable-but-not-so-fast-as-to-break-the-law speed. And her eyes were also off the road and looking at the rear-view mirror at the two boys.

Their father, who sat next to their mother and was slowly tightening his seatbelt as he glanced between the driver of the car and road, coughed. "Well, the microwave was insured against Quirk-related incidents, so you know... no harm done..." He swallowed heavily as he shrunk back into his seat. "Honey, could you maybe keep your eyes on the road?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever, it's fine." As she said this, the car passed by a truck close enough that the father was surprised he hadn't heard a scraping sound from the two vehicles making contact. "Geez, it's like you have no faith in my driving ability whatsoever. I'm almost insulted."

This was a sentence said as the woman narrowly avoided running a red light.

The husband sweatdropped. "How did you get a hero license again...?"

The rest of the trip had consisted of the twins' parents arguing about their mother's driving skills, while Kyomu had been gushing back and forth around Hikari and his Quirk. Hikari had just been silently blinking towards Kyomu's way and was occasionally making a small sphere of white light in the palm of his hand to distract Kyomu.

At last, they had arrived at the their destination: the public park. A little family outing the four of them did on the rare occasion they wanted to celebrate something, and the awakening of a Quirk had been a good enough excuse as any to go. The brothers didn't really know what their parents did together whenever they were at the park, as the two often left the pair to their own devices.

As for them? Well, they just usually messed around for a few hours until their parents came calling for them.

The park itself was large enough, spreading over around five kilometers, and was full of enough trees and even a stream to seem authentic enough. The two brothers were currently tromping through that foliage, animatedly talking about everything that were on their minds.

"School hasn't changed at all since you were suspended," Kyomu said as he ducked under a low-bearing branch. "Work was easy, as always. The others were weird around me as always, too."

"What about that one whose arm I broke?" Hikari asked as he followed closely behind Kyomu. "He say anything to you?"

Kyomu shook his head. "No, he was... quiet. Wouldn't even look me in the eye, actually." He then smiled. "But hey, the arm's fine, so that's good. Right?"

"Sure." Giving a shrug, Hikari caught up to Kyomu's side. "Nobody else gave you any trouble or anything like that?"

Once again, Kyomu shook his head. "No. Everything was normal. But you weren't there, so I guess it wasn't normal?" He shrugged. "I dunno."

"Good, good. That's... really good, Kyomu."

The corners of Kyomu's mouth turned down slightly when he heard the tone of voice Hikari had taken. It was more dour than he usually sounded. And his shoulders were sagging, too. "Hey, brother?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" Kyomu asked. "You look really down. Like, ever since we left the hospital for the first time you've looked like this." He paused. "It's not because of the... thing mom's Quirk did to us, is it?"

Hikari's shoulders sagged even lower. "No, it's not that. It's... well..." He bit his bottom lip. "It's nothing, Kyomu. Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"AH!"

Both brothers' heads snapped up at the sound of somebody close by screaming. Their eyes locked for only a second before the two children tore off towards the area where the sound had emanated from, Kyomu taking the lead with Hikari close behind. It only took them thirty seconds to arrive at the location.

It was in a location where the park's terrain ran down into a small crevasse, with the park's stream running through the middle of that crevasse. A bridge ran above it as well, where two children that looked around the twins' age were looking down. The boys looked in the direction the newcomers were looking at to see there were two other boys. And strangely enough, it looked like one of the boys was screaming at the other, who was shrinking back from the yeller's verbal assault.

"It doesn't look like anybody's hurt," Kyomu noted, looking at the scene below. "Should we go do something?"

Hikari shrugged. "We should see if they're okay. Just in case, you know?"

"Not really, but..." Kyomu started sliding down the terrain towards the boys. "Since you wanna. C'mon, let's go."

The two boys had both climbed down to the bottom of the small ravine, and then proceeded to roll up their pant legs so they could cross the small river towards the two boys. It was evidently clear as they got closer that things were, in fact, not fine at all. It was easy to tell when one of the boys was screaming at the other.

The one doing the actual yelling was a boy with bleach-blond hair, while the one being yelled at was a boy with dark, curly hair that the two twins could almost swear was tinged with a green color. Tears- a very unhealthy amount of tears that made Kyomu uncomfortable from the sheer volume- was falling out from his green eyes as the blonde boy was screaming at him.

"H-hey, hey!" Kyomu had to shake the water off his legs as me managed to fully cross the river. Behind him was Hikari, grumbling under his breath as he also shook water off.

The boy who had been doing the screaming whipped his head around, his red eyes instantly boring into Kyomu's blue. They were a few shades a lighter red than his brother's, but somehow he felt even more intimidated from that stare alone.

"Who are you two and what do you want?" he snapped, folding his arms across his chest. The crying boy behind him crawled a bit away from him, though he kept a wary eye on the blonde boy and the twins.

"Um, well, we were just passing by when we saw you guys," Kyomu said, nervously wringing his hands together. "W-we heard the scream, so we came to make sure-"

"We're fine!" the blonde screamed at him. "Nobody here needs any help. Especially me!"

The fallen boy behind the blonde boy raised a shaking hand. "K-Kacchan, they're just making sure everything's okay. You shouldn't-"

"Shut up, Deku! You don't get to tell me what to do!" The blonde boy, Kacchan's, face turned furious as he craned his neck to look at the boy. He'd also turned both of his palms up, and Kyomu's eyes widened when small explosions began blowing out from the boy's palms. He couldn't even act before Kacchan turned back to him. "And you," he screamed, "I told you that everybody here was fine! So you better get out of here before I-!"

"Hey." Kyomu's view was obscured with white as his brother stepped in between him and Kacchan. Kyomu only grew more nervous when he saw wisps of white lights dancing around both of his hands in circles. Kacchan had also noticed, his eyes narrowing when he saw the light.

"We should all calm down. Nobody wants things to turn violent," Hikari said as the lights around his hands brightened. "So why don't we just put the Quirks away and talk about all this?"

"Hikari...!" Kyomu nervously tugged on his brother's shoulder, the anxiety already growing. "We talked about this! You can't get violent-"

"I'm not being violent right now. He is." Hikari gently shrugged the hand off and faced Kacchan. "Please just stop the explosions. You're making my brother nervous."

The blonde scoffed, though he looked considerate when he looked at the light flowing around Hikari's hands. Finally he nodded and lowered his own hands, the explosions ceasing. "You can turn the light show off," he said. "I wasn't gonna use my Quirk on you two anyways."

Hikari nodded, powering off his own Quirk. "Good," he said. He turned back to his brother, nodding his head and causing the black-haired boy to sigh. Kyomu then ran past both Hikari and Kacchan, going towards the fallen boy and holding a hand out to him.

"You okay?" he asked, giving him a small smile. "You can stop crying now. Nobody's gonna hurt you."

The boy wiped a hand across his face, drying the few tears left before smiling in turn and taking his hand. The boy was then pulled to his feet. "Thanks," he murmured, his smile turning shy as he avoided his gaze.

"Sure thing!" He glanced down at the boy's shirt, and then nearly blanched at the chiseled, smiling face staring at him from the boy's chest. "So you're an All Might fan, huh?" he asked, taking a step back.

The shyness immediately faded away from the boy's face. "Yeah!" the smile fell slightly when he saw Kyomu's apprehension. "Why, you're not?"

"It's not that, it's just..." He looked to his brother to help, who gave a combination of a nod of his head and a shrug. They were both like-minded when it came to that hero. "He's just everywhere, you know?" He turned back to the boy. "It's great that he's the number one hero and everything and it's great how many people he helps, but, like... we see his face everywhere. On the news and on mugs in shop windows and on shirts like yours. It's just a bit much, you know?"

"I don't know. I think he doesn't have enough merchandise!" It seemed like the very idea of All Might caused the boy to beam, his eyes growing so wide and hopeful. It made Kyomu even more nervous than the previous screaming.

"Is that right?" He rubbed a hand behind his head and gave off a small laugh. "You must really admire the guy."

"Of course I do! He's the best! One day I wanna be a hero as great as-!"

"Fat chance of that, Deku!" The blonde from earlier, his arms still cross, shot a malicious smile towards Deku's way, causing him to shrink back. The two boys that had been on the bridge above earlier had come down and had equally big, mocking smiles as they flocked right behind Kacchan. "You don't even have a Quirk!" he shouted. "The only place you're gonna be a hero is in your dreams, you useless wannabe!"

The boy besides Kyomu grew angry. It was a slight amount- so slight Kyomu could barely see it- but it was there. "T-t-that's not true, Kacchan!" he argued, and then turned to Kyomu. "Somebody can be a hero without a Quirk, right? Right!?"

Kyomu shrugged. "I don't know," he said. And really, he didn't. All he knew about hero life was from what he saw on TV and from what his mother said. She'd never said anything about a Quirkless hero, but... he guessed it could be possible. Probably. He didn't know.

The words didn't seem to reassure Deku. "You're probably just saying that because you have a cool Quirk like your brother," he said.

"Actually, I don't have mine yet," Kyomu said, nervously rubbing his shoulder.

"Hah!" The blonde boy with the explosions barked off a laugh, and the two boys behind him gave Kyomu condescending sneers. "So you're another Quirkless loser, huh? Just a useless loser as useless as Deku over there."

Kyomu flinched back from the insult giving by the boy. This was a movement caught from the corner of Hikari's eyes, who slowly turned his head towards the three boys. "Lay off my brother," he demanded.

"Why should I?" More explosions started popping out of the boy's palms. Behind him, one boy started extending his fingers while red, bat-like wings sprouted out the back of another. "He's trying to tell that useless Deku over there he might actually have a chance of being a hero when he's Quirkless, and his face ticks me off even more!" A cruel smile started spreading over his mouth. "And since you got the same face as him..."

Hikari sighed. "You really don't wanna-" he tried to war, but was too late to say anything more. The boy with the red wings had already pushed off the ground and fly right towards Hikari with his fists outstretched.

Then Hikari punched the boy in the nose, his head whipping back as his body spiraled into the ground in front of the other two boys.

There was silence between all the boys, all looking at the winged one who had hit the ground. He stood up slowly, small whimpers escaping his mouth before he threw his head back and progressed into full-on bawling, tears from his eyes and blood from his crooked nose dribbling down his mouth.

"Y-you idiot!" Kacchan shouted, crouching down by the bleeding boys side while harshly glaring at Hikari. "What'd you break his nose for!?"

Kyomu, seeing the state the boy was in, slapped his face. "Hikari, you already got suspended for breaking that guy's arm the other day!" he shouted at his brother. The blonde, Deku, and the boy with the fingers all widened their eyes while the winged one continued to cry. "You can't be violent in school-!"

"We're not in school," Hikari pointed out.

Hikari opened his mouth to respond, but then he paused in though. His brother was right. Technically they weren't in school, so they couldn't get in trouble for this.

Then again there was a crying boy with a broken nose, and Hikari was on thin enough water as it was considering what he'd done previously. Their parents probably wouldn't be too happy. So they should probably leave before they find out.

Kyomu turned back to the curly-haired boy. "We should probably go before this gets any worse, Deku," he said, giving a sheepish smile. "Nice meeting you, though."

"Wait!" Kyomu hadn't made it three steps before the boy held his hand out. "My name's not Deku! It's Midoriya!"

"Um... that's great!" By this point Kyomu had already placed both of his hands on his brother's back and was pushing him away from the group of boys. "I'm Shinka Kyomu and my brother and I really have to leave right now so bye!"

Hikari had caught on quickly and had went right into the river, running straight towards the other side. Kyomu was right at his back, the two running nearly side-by-side even as the blonde boy with the explosions started screaming at them for having hurt his friend. Kyomu was positive he even felt a shoe bounce off of his head.

The two of them had run a fair distance even after they had made it to the other side. They'd scrambled up to the top of the ravine and had sprinted past the trees and shrubbery, trying their best to outrun the shouting from the blonde boy. They didn't know if he was actually chasing them or if he was just that loud, but they hadn't looked back to make sure. They just wanted to run out of that situation as fast as possible.

Eventually, though, they had managed to run far enough that they couldn't hear the boy's voice anymore. Both were leaning on their knees, panting heavily as they had sprinted half of the length of the whole park. Kyomu was the first one to pick his head up, his face set on a frown. Hikari, who raised his own head, caught onto the look immediately.

"What's that look for?" he asked, straightening his body along with Kyomu who continued to glare.

"You hurt that person with the wings," Kyomu accused. "Why'd you break his nose?"

Hikari raised a questioning eyebrow. "He flew right at me. I did it on reflex." He gave a shrug. "It's just a broken nose. He'll be fine. Besides, what would you have done?"

The black-haired boy pouted, knowing his response would have only proven his brother's point, pursed his lips and turned his back on his brother. Hikari laughed at that.

"See? Told ya." Kyomu flinched when his brother rested his arm over his shoulders. "Besides, those three were bullies picking on that guy. The blonde one, at least. Didn't it feel at least a little good stopping them and taking them down a notch?"

Kyomu hummed, though he didn't deny what the white-haired boy was saying. "I guess... it felt a little good..." It wasn't like he wanted to see the curly-haired boy be bullied. He didn't want to see people hurt, either, but less so than the former.

And he supposed it could have been worse. They could have actually gotten in trouble for this.

The black-haired boy looked back to his brother, who was smiling widely at him. Kyomu smiled back, laughing a bit as they pushed away from each other.

"Wanna head back to mom and dad?" Kyomu asked. "It's starting to get late. And I don't really wanna spend too much time here in case we run into those guys again."

Hikari gave an eager nod, pointing his hand behind him. "Yeah, you're right. C'mon, let's go."

The two had eventually managed to safely make their way back to their parents (thankfully avoiding an errant, blonde-haired children with exploding palms or angry parents). The two twins had expressed on how much of a good time they'd had in the park, much to the delight of the parents. They'd purposefully neglected to tell them about the events that had transpired at the ravine. They both had figured that what the parents didn't know couldn't hurt them.

The two brothers had decided in the car ride back to their home that this visit to the park had been the most fun one they had ever experienced. And for just a moment Hikari was able to forget about his suspension.


	4. Chapter 4

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 4- Void**

* * *

Kyomu wasn't at all tired tonight.

This was normal for a lot of kids. Sometimes children just had too much energy to go to sleep at an unreasonable hour like ten at night. He surely wasn't an exception, and neither was his brother. He wasn't because he'd binged on too many videos on the internet or he'd eaten too many sweets, though. Not like most other kids.

He was awake right now because of Hikari.

The two of them shared a room together, each end of the room they shared having a bed for them to sleep in. This was the only piece of furniture the two had to call their own, as they shared dressers, the closet, and even the computer they kept in their room. It suited them just fine. Sharing didn't exactly create any issues and it was just between the two of them.

Because of the fact they shared a room, Kyomu was able to tell something was troubling Hikari just by looking at him while he sat in his own bed. He wasn't even trying to sleep; he was just sitting on his bed and hugging his pillow, his body easily visible from the pure-white pajamas he was wearing.

Kyomu frowned. If Hikari wasn't well enough to be sleeping, then he wasn't going to be mentally sound enough to sleep. So he threw the bed's covers off of him, adjusting the sleeves on his black pajamas as he crept over to his brother's side of the room. When he got close enough he pulled the chain on the lamp next to his bed, illuminating his side of the room and startling him instantly. His face had snapped over to the sudden flood of light, but then straightened when he saw it was just his brother.

"Oh. Don't scare me like that. Geez." Hikari rested his chin on the pillow he held to his chest, red eyes looking up into Kyomu's blue. "What are you doing up this late?"

"I think I should be asking you that, Hikari."

Hikari's eyes widened in surprise. "Me? What-?"

"You've looked weird ever since you came back from the Quirk examination," Kyomu pointed out, poking his brother on the forehead. "You looked weird even back when you broke our classmate's arm, but now it's even worse. You're all quiet and sulky. I don't like it." He sat down on the other end of Hikari's bed, giving him a firm look in his eyes. "So I'm not going to sleep until you tell me what the problem is."

He looked ready to refute all those claims, Hikari did. But the conviction that was in Kyomu's eyes was enough to tell him that his brother was serious in what he was saying, and he knew well enough that Kyomu would go to such lengths for his sake. He'd done worse before. With this in mind, he sighed and lowered the pillow.

"Everybody's treating me differently," he said. "They'll treat you different, too, once you get your Quirk. I don't like it."

It was Kyomu's turn to widen his eyes. "What?"

"When I got my Quirk, you just... you kept hopping around me all excited. Mom and dad got this look in their eyes I'd never seen before. It was a look I like, but it only exists because of my Quirk. It's frustrating knowing that, even if it's the smallest bit, there's a piece of happiness they have for me that didn't exist until I got my Quirk." His face furrowed in frustration. "Even that kid at the park. The blonde one with the palm Quirk. He wasn't listening to me at all until he saw I had a Quirk. He treated you like garbage just because you didn't have one."

"You're upset because we all...? Hikari, we're just happy for you," Kyomu said, poking his brother in the forehead once more. "Getting your Quirk is a special occasion. Like a birthday that happens once in your life. So of course the happiness is special."

"It doesn't feel like happiness," Hikari muttered. "It feels like acceptance. It should've been there in the first place." He looked up at his brother. "They've never given you that look because you don't have one."

"I will, though. It's just not here, yet," Kyomu said. "Everybody gets a Quirk."

Hikari's shoulders sagged. "Not everybody gets one and you know it."

"Well, we're not Quirkless. So we don't have to worry about that." Kyomu shuffled along the bed until he was shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother. He then wrapped an arm over said brother's shoulder, flashing him a smile. "Besides. Even if we didn't have them, our parents would love us regardless. I know I would. You're my brother. Having a special power or not doesn't make you mean any less to me."

He evened out when Kyomu said this. He still looked a little disheartened, but it was better. "What about our bodies?" he mumbled. "We're different from everybody else because of mom's Quirk. Everybody at school already looks at us weirdly because we're better than all of them. That's just going to continue."

"So what?" Kyomu shrugged. "It doesn't matter what anybody thinks. When people around us get older they'll get smarter, like us. They'll worry less and less about us and more about themselves. Worse comes to worse, we'll just pretend to be like everybody else."

"We shouldn't have to pretend to be like everybody else to fit in."

"Then we won't. We'll do whatever makes us comfortable." Kyomu pushed his shoulder. "As long as we have each other, it doesn't really matter, right?"

Hikari had seemed to take a bit of an affront to the shove Kyomu had given him, so he had shoved him back. A devious glint began to form in Kyomu's eyes, and he quickly grabbed the pillow from before that Hikari had let go of. Before the white-haired boy could say anything in protest, Kyomu had flung the pillow over his face.

The two boys giggled, Kyomu leaning his head to the side when Hikari retaliated by throwing another pillow. He caught it just before the pillow flew out of arm's reach and swung it at Hikari, who blocked it with the pillow previously thrown at him. They continued to laugh as they lightly swung the pillows at each other over and over, forgetting all about the sleep they should be having in exchange for having fun beating each other with pillows.

The fun stopped when the two brothers heard screaming from downstairs.

The pillows dropped from the hands of both the brothers. They fell completely silent, staring at each other as they listened expectantly for any more noise. There was none.

"Was that... mom?" Kyomu asked Hikari. He was given an unknowing shake of his brother's head, Hikari himself looking very concerned over the noise they had just heard.

The two slowly crawled out of the bed and crept towards the door to their room, making their footsteps as quiet as possible as they were too scared to make a noise. The door was slowly opened, the hinges emitting a small creaking sound that caused both of the boys to cringe in fear, though eventually they managed to get the door open.

The hallway leading to the stairwell, and indeed the stairwell itself, would be completely pitch-black were it not for the moonlight and lights from streetlamps bleeding in through the windows, as well as the light from Hikari's lamp escaping through the open doorway the two boys left. All four family members were usually asleep at this time, so there was no need to keep any of the lights on. It also meant that there shouldn't have been anybody screaming from right below them; their parents' bedroom was across the house, whereas the kitchen was beneath the boys' room.

The two boys managed to make it down the stairs without making a sound, Hikari taking the lead towards the kitchen with Kyomu stepping slowly and nervously behind him. The two were barely able to make their way to the kitchen due to the low lighting, but Hikari managed to feel his way towards the entrance and took a single step in.

His bare foot stepped in something warm and wet.

Hikari's head snapped down to his foot, which was raised to give him a better view of what he had just stepped in. It was a liquid red substance that had pooled onto the linoleum flooring below the white-haired boy. His eyes went from the thick pool beneath him to the small trail that was leading to it, where he saw a body lying face-down.

He instantly recognized it as his own father.

 _"W-what...?"_ Hikari started to shake as a sick feeling overtook him. _"Dad's... why's he on the floor like that...?"_

 _SHLCK!_

Hikari's eyes rolled forwards towards the other end of the kitchen. He saw his mother standing there in her own sleepwear, clutching something near her stomach. Then she fell onto her back, a small stream of blood spurting out of a wound on her stomach. He could see that the thing she had been clutching was a long, sharp, metal blade.

The blade moved, causing Hikari's body to go rigid when he saw four identical blades floating next to the blood-covered one, and another set of five right next to them. Though he could barely muster up the will to do it, he managed to squint his eyes enough for him to see that there was a man standing where his mother had been standing. A man dressed in dark clothing and whose face was obscured by a ski mask.

He was staring right at Hikari.

The man lifted his fingers, each one ending in one of the blades that had been used to stab his mother. Hikari's breath had hitched in his throat when the man slowly raked the metal claws together, and to his horror he had taken a single step forwards.

Kyomu had chosen that time to stand next to Hikari. Unlike his frozen brother, he was shaking, though Hikari had no reason why. His eyes had drifted back and forth between their fallen father and mother, and he didn't even seem to acknowledge the man with metal claws as he began mumbling.

"Dad...? Mom...?" Hikari could see that Kyomu's hands were beginning to twitch. Black, smoke-like material flowing out from those twitching hands and began swirling around them. "Why are you... they're..."

"Kyomu?" Hikari shook his brother's shoulder. "Kyomu, what're you-"

The clawed man took another step forwards. Kyomu seemed to have heard it from how his ears perked up, and his head snapped up to look at his masked face. Hikari could see his brother's pupils dilate, and the black material around his arms to explosively increase in size.

It was the last thing Hikari saw before everything went dark.

* * *

It was a strange sight that the officers had arrived upon when they had arrived at the location surrounding the call. It had sounded serious enough: a neighbor calling about screams they had heard next door. It was enough grounds for a squad car to be sent, and so one was sent.

The two officers always prepared for the best as well as the worst, from a prank calling or a complete misunderstanding to a break in or domestic violence. They'd both been in the force long enough to experience all of these things as well as everything in between, and on such a calm and unassuming night such as this, it could have been any number of things.

What they had pulled up to was not something they had prepared for.

They'd arrived on the street where the caller had called from, and on each side was a row of houses. One one side, however, there was one missing. A large space between two houses that was absent of a house, as well as a large section of street right in front of it. The ground between the two spaces was caved in, as well. A shallow, spherical hole that had the two officers completely baffled as they left their squad car.

"What happened here?" one of the officers asked. "It's like the house here just... disappeared."

"There's no rubble, either," the other officer noted. "And look-" he shined a flashlight to the edge of the circular crater, "- there's no loose dirt o-or anything. It looks like this hole was dug and more like it just vanished, like the house."

"The hell...? Was it some kind of Quirk that did this?" The first officer stepped to the lip of the crater and looked down. "Wait, shine your light down there! I see something!"

The officer with the flashlight in hand obliged the other officer, and pointed the lit end of the flashlight into the bottom of the hole. There were two boys at the bottom, one dressed in black pajamas and the other in white. From the looks of it they were both alive from the rising and falling of their chests, though they seemed unconscious.

They were the only things in that hole to be seen.

"Alright, call an ambulance," the first officer slowly said to the second, who reached for his radio.

"Should we... call this in?" he asked.

The first briskly nodded. "Yeah, I think we should."

* * *

 **12 hours later**

 _"Why did this have to happen?"_

Hikari's feet hung still in the high chair he was sat in. The very, very hard chair in the uncomfortably empty room where the only thing to see was the police officer sitting right across from him.

He felt numb. There were so many emotions that had gone through him in the last few hours since he had woken up that all he felt now was a white buzz going through him. He couldn't even focus on the officer sitting across from him, too lost in his own thoughts. The image of that wall of utter blackness exploding out from his brother, engulfing him, their parents, and the person that had broken into their house along with the entire house. The image of everything around him breaking down around him and his brother.

His brother. His brother who developed a Quirk that just disintegrated their lives.

"Son, I need you to answer my question," the officer in front of him said. "Entire homes don't go disappearing in an instant. We can't get into contact with your parents, either, leaving us to believe they were in your home at the time of its disappearance. The only thing there was you and your brother. So what happened to your home?"

The truth would have been "Kyomu made it all disappear forever", but Hikari didn't say that. His mind was whirling in thoughts that shouldn't have been possible for a normal four-year old.

 _"Kyomu doesn't have a Quirk on record,"_ he thought to himself. _"If he doesn't demonstrate that he has one and I don't say anything, they won't know he does. That just leaves me with a newly-discovered Quirk barely a day old. That means the limits haven't been fully documented._

 _"We could say somebody broke into our house and assaulted our parents, but... there's no bodies to confirm that. Even if they did believe us, it doesn't change the fact that Kyomu killed the person that broke into our home. And if our parents weren't dead from the stab wounds, he... he would have killed them, too..."_ He gulped at that thought. The knowledge that he'd never get to see his parents again hadn't even sunk in yet due to the shock.

 _"Even if it was in self-defense, Japan has extremely strict laws about Quirk usage. The doctor who examined me and my mother kept telling me that over and over at the hospital. Both times."_ His hands tightened while resting on his thighs. _"I don't know what they would do to him if I told the truth. But my brother... he didn't... he doesn't deserve whatever they would do to him if they they found he did it..."_

"It was me," he said, not at all thinking about the words coming out from his mouth. "I... used my Quirk to make my parents disappear."

He didn't care if it was true or not. He was barely even aware of the choice he was making right now. He just didn't want his brother being hurt for something he hadn't done on purpose.

"..." The officer didn't say anything at first. Then he got up from his chair, told Hikari to stay where he was, and left the room while locking the door behind him.

He sighed. They were questioning Kyomu in another room, so he had no idea what he would tell them. Probably the truth, which would contradict what he just said. Which would probably mean he had just lied for nothing.

 _"Kyomu... why did this happen to us?"_

* * *

Kyomu, held in a separate questioning room from his brother and who was sat across from an equally intimidating-looking officer questioning him, was in far worse a state than his calm brother had been in. He couldn't stop shaking, and tears wouldn't stop streaming down his face. He could barely even hear the officer in front of him talking.

 _"I-I..."_ He couldn't even look at his hands. Even if his eyesight wasn't blurred from the tears, he wouldn't be able to look at his hands. He was fully aware of what he had done. It didn't make him feel any better. _"I just... I saw him and I... m-m-my Quirk, I didn't know I had a Quirk, it... it killed them..."_

He hadn't even felt it happen. It just did. His brand-new Quirk killed the person that had tried to kill his parents. Or maybe he did kill them? Kyomu would never know. There wasn't anything left to tell.

 _"What are they gonna do to me?"_ he thought to himself. _"If I tell them I killed them with my Quirk, they'll... but they don't know I have one. My brother-"_

"My brother," he said out loud. "He... he used his Quirk. It's his fault."

It was a blatant lie. Kyomu hadn't even thought up of the idea to lie. It was as if he had subconsciously said the lie without his consent, as his own eyes had widened as he said the lie aloud. Like he didn't mean to say that.

The officer didn't seem to notice the subtle change in the four-year old's face. He'd told Kyomu to wait patiently while he got up and left the room, locking the door behind him. After a certain amount of time- could have been five minutes, could have been an hour. Kyomu was too anxious to keep track of the time- the door was opened again and the officer from before gestured for Kyomu to step out from the room.

He saw his brother upon exiting the room, with the officer that had questioned him standing close by. Hikari had an officer of his own escorting him. For some reason both officers were glaring at Hikari.

Kyomu's brother looked him in the eyes. There was a strange look on his own face, and he opened his mouth multiple time as he tried to find the right words to say to his brother. "Kyomu..." he started, looking unsure of himself. "Did... did you tell them I did it?"

The black-haired boy felt something drop in his chest. "Hikari, I didn't- I- it just-"

He tried reaching a hand out to his brother. The officer escorting Kyomu stood in front of the hand, shaking his head. "We need to separate the two of you," he said. "As of this instant, your brother is under arrest. We'll be taking him to an isolated cell."

"W-what?" Kyomu looked past the officer. His brother wasn't even looking at him. "But-"

"Come on." The officer tried pushing Kyomu away, but he refused. He pushed the hand away and ran up to his brother, who was already being lead away by his own officer.

"Kyomu." Both the brother and the two officers stopped when Hikari turned his head to speak to his brother, eyes completely blank of emotion and his mouth set in a low frown. "Don't be sorry."

It was the last words Hikari had said to Kyomu before the officer had lead him away. Kyomu quietly stammered to himself, trying and failing to understand what the words his brother had spoken to him meant. It did not ease him at all how heartbroken Hikari had sounded with that statement.

But then the officer lead him away. He hadn't even been able to say goodbye to his brother.

* * *

 **6 months later**

Cases of minors murdering their parents, while extremely rare, was a recognized crime in Japan. And an unfortunate truth about the Japanese legal system was that murder cases were very short and almost always against the accused. Considering Hikari had pleaded guilty, his Quirk was just unknowable enough for what happened to be believable, and had a previous record of violence with how he'd broken a classmates arm, there was little to no defense for him anyways.

When asked why he had done it in court? He lied and said it was simply because he didn't like his parents. It was the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life.

Regardless, it was a open-and-close case. Hikari was founded guilty for murder of his two parents, one of which was the hero GACT.

Usually this wouldn't warrant somebody as young as him going to a maximum-security prison. Teens in most cases were sent to juvenile hall. Children as young as Hikari was were usually sent to mental institutes to be looked after in a more friendly environment. And had "Hikari" murdered his parents in a normal fashion, he just may have gotten a sentence at a mental institute.

But, as far as the law was concerned, he'd used his Quirk to do the deed. And Japan and its laws were very skittish when it came to the unlawful use of Quirks. So with no regard to his age, Hikari was branded a villain and sent to a maximum-security prison. No therapy, and as far as he knew, no chance of parole until he'd reached the age of sixteen. And even then he doubted it would happen based on how the judge and lawyers had acted.

So he was transported to the prison, fitted in an orange jumpsuit as he was lead down one of the many halls by two guards with rifles in hand. They passed many cells along the way, prisoners inside laughing and jeering at the boy much to his annoyance. He was eventually lead to a section of the prison without open-bar cells; he was deemed too untrustworthy dangerous due to his Quirk to be put with regular inmates. So he was to be put in solitary confinement.

The room he was lead into had absolutely no light source. It's what the prison had devised in order to contain him, as he needed light in order for his Quirk to work. The door was made of steel at four inches thick, and all locks were located on the outside. There was a slot in the middle for meals to be put through, and that was it. The only furniture in the cell was a bed and the bare necessities.

Hikari was lead into the cell by the guards, and the door was promptly shut. He was instantly encased in total darkness- thick enough he couldn't even see his hands if he pressed them up against his face.

He guess their method of containing him was working so far, so they were at least mildly decent at their job.

It took some fumbling around, but he finally managed to feel his way towards the bed. He supposed he'd have to get use to being practically blind now, being stuck in this perpetual darkness. He sat down on the bed, pulling his knees up to his chest while letting out a low sigh.

"Kyomu..."

* * *

The Shinka brothers' parents, both of them, had been orphaned due to villain attacks on their respective families. If Kyomu recalled correctly, that was how the two of them had met. They'd both grown up in an orphanage. Much like the one he was in right now. He didn't have any extended family to go to.

Any he had was wiped away by his Quirk. Except for one, but he was in prison. Which was also his fault.

The six months since that night had been a blur. Child protective services had taken him, and he'd been transported from facility to facility every so often. He'd kept his Quirk hidden for three months during the transitions, just to ward off any suspicions. He doubted there was any, though. The case against his brother had been so good from what he had heard that he doubted him having a Quirk alongside his brother would have made much of a difference.

But he'd still waited, and then one day had used it. It wasn't anything fancy; just some black wisps he'd generated around his arms. The doctors had looked at it, he'd been registered, and he was moved to another facility like nothing happened.

Eventually he'd wound up at an orphanage. Sunflower Orphanage, to be exact. he'd only arrived today, though, so there wasn't much to be said about the place. He'd simply been dropped off and had to wait a bit while his temporary care holder had talked with the owner of the orphanage before leaving. Then he'd met the person who owned and ran the orphanage, who was a kind-enough aged woman in his eyes. She'd at least been nice enough to prepare his room beforehand, and along the way there had kept trying to say positive things in order to lift his mood, and said that eventually he'd get to meet the other children and that it was assured they would all become fast friends.

He hadn't really listened to a word she said.

And now here he was. In a small room that was a quarter the size of the room he and his brother used to share with barely anything besides a bed, a desk and dresser, and other bits of furniture. He'd completely destroyed all of his valuables six months ago, after all. He didn't exactly have anything to his name besides the black clothes the child protective services had provided him.

 _"Hikari. Mom. Dad."_ He sat on his back on the bed, one hand resting under his head while another one grasped a unpeeled banana. _"I'm sorry. It's all..."_ His eyes darkened. Memories of the man with the knives for nails he'd killed popped briefly into his head. _"It's all_ his _fault."_

He moved his free hand out from under his head and lifted it up into the air. He extended his index finger and traced it down through the air. Black, formless material was left behind by the finger and slowly extended until a flat, circular and completely black hole about the size of Kyomu's head was floating above him.

 _"My Quirk,"_ he thought to himself. _"The reason my family's life was ruined, along with that man. Void."_

He'd almost never practiced with it outside of his examination, and even then he'd held back a great deal. Though hesitant in using it, he was honestly curious on what his Quirk did. So he slowly held his banana out towards the hole, his face completely absent of emotion. It was a stark contrast to the excitement he'd held over his brother's Quirk.

He pushed half of the banana through, and then pulled it back out. The half he'd put in had instantly gone from normal to a shriveled mess that barely contained its shape, and was completely frozen. it fell away at the slightest touch. When he put his own hand in the portal, nothing happened.

His eyebrows widened, and he swiped his hand in front of the portal, causing it to disappear. He then swiped a finger downwards again, tilting his head an concentrating. Another hole was made, though this one was different from the previous. Where the first one had a completely smooth edge, this one had a jagged edge in a constant state of random motion, as if it was unstable.

He pushed the other half of the banana in. The part touching the portal completely disintegrated right before Kyomu, who continually pushed the banana into the portal as it slowly shrunk due to the disintegration. It almost looked like a popsicle slowly disappearing as it was pushed against a burning sidewalk, but there was nothing left behind but the top of the banana once Kyomu pulled it away. Again, he stuck his hand in. And again, nothing happened. He hummed, and then dismissed the portal.

 _"Huh. Interesting."_

He barely even remembered it was his fifth birthday today from how curious he had gotten over his Quirk.

* * *

 **AN- Shout out to that one guy that's been reviewin' so far. Which is honestly way more attention than I figured this story would garner.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 5- Ambition**

* * *

 **5 years later**

 _"This place... isn't how I remember it..."_

As far as Kyomu could remember, Amon's manga shop was one of the few places in the world he and his brother actually enjoyed visiting on occasion. It was a nice reprieve from life every once in awhile the two had taken time to enjoy. The place wasn't lively- except for the actual owner, there was hardly ever anybody there-, but it was still a place they could look fondly at.

It was why he was surprised seeing the place so rundown. Windows were broken, the exterior walls were so dilapidated that it was a shocking contrast when compared to the relatively well-maintained walls to buildings around the shop, and the door was missing. In the place of a door was four wooden planks nailed across the entrance. And when Kyomu peeked between the boards, he could see there wasn't a single manga book left on the shelf. Just cobwebs and darkness, as there wasn't a single light on in the place.

"Hey, mister?" The ten-year old turned to the closest bystander that was walking across his sidewalk and gestured for him to stop. To Kyomu's relief he did so, and when the man gave the boy a questioning look he pointed towards the shop. "A man named Amon used to run this store. Do you know if he moved somewhere or something?"

"Hm?" The stranger turned towards the shop Kyomu was pointing at, and then nodded in understanding. "Oh, that old place," he said. "Yeah, place got wrecked a couple years back. There was a big fight between a group of heroes and some villain and one of the heroes got tossed into the store. They had a fire Quirk and they ended up accidentally burnin' up all the poor guy's merchandise."

Kyomu groaned, and then covered his face with a hand. _"This is what you get for calling villain insurance a waste of money, Amon,"_ he internally sighed before looking back up at the man. "So where'd he go?" he asked.

The man shrugged. "I think I heard a rumor awhile back that he went off to build his business back up in the countryside where those books he sold weren't as popular. Guess he figured there'd be bigger consumer base or something."

"I see. Thanks." The man nodded at Kyomu and continued in the direction he had been walking prior, while Kyomu had turned back towards the ruined store and gave it a sad look. "Oh, Amon..."

His hands were shoved into his pockets and he trudged away from the store, barely making any distance before a page of newspaper flew under his foot. He idly glanced down at the headlines, groaning quietly when he saw the headline. He vaguely remembered that piece of news that was broadcast on his train ride here: a villain had attacked at the park he and his family used to frequent occasionally. And unfortunately, the villain had some kind of toxic Quirk that made the environment within the park too hazardous for people to visit. The news also said it was estimated to take about two years to decontaminate the park.

Kyomu shook the newspaper off of his foot and continued walking.

 _"It feels like there's a villain attack almost every other day now. And people keep suffering because of it."_ Kyomu quickly weaved between the crowds of people walking down the sidewalk, thinking to himself silently as he kept his face pointed at the ground. _"Villains attack. Heroes fight them. It just keeps going on an on. It's not as bad as it used to be, sure, but... why does all this stuff still happen?"_ He felt his fists clench in his pockets. _"Amon. That park. My family. If villain attacks really have been going down over the years, then why does all of this keep happening to me?"_

A scream jolted him from his thoughts.

He looked up. In his musings he'd wandered away from the crowds and had passed by a darkened alley, where he'd heard a very feminine scream resonate from. Part of him was wondering if he'd just imagined the scream somehow, but another shrilly shriek from within the alley dissuaded that notion.

 _"Should I go see what's wrong? There's no other heroes, and if it's somebody hurting somebody and I help... there's all those anti-vigilante laws-"_

There was another shriek in the alley, this was louder than the others. Kyomu made up his mind.

 _"Ah, forget them! If they don't want people doing their jobs they should show up!"_

So, against his better judgment, Kyomu had bolted down the alley, following the sounds of the screaming which were steadily becoming louder. He came to a corner and ran past it, wholly expecting to see whoever it was that was screaming.

Well, he did find that person. The one, single person. And he didn't expect them to be a disheveled middle-aged man.

 _"What?"_ Kyomu stopped in his tracks the second he saw the man. He also saw that his mouth was open, indicating that he indeed was the one screaming and not somebody else Kyomu didn't see. The mouth soon closed though, and an insidious sneer began to stretch across his face. _"It's just a weirdo with some vocal Quirk, isn't it?"_ Kyomu thought to himself as his shoulders slumped.

"Ah man, seriously? I put on that big ol' performance and all I rope in is some kid? I usually manage to rope in some chivalrous idiot at this time'a day. Sheesh..." He dug into his pocket and whipped it out right in front of Kyomu's face. The youth's eyes widened when he saw a pocket knife. "Awright, kid, you old enough to know the drill here or do I gotta explain this?"

Kyomu took a step backwards, but the threatening man in front negated this by taking a step forwards. "A-are you trying to rob me?" Kyomu stuttered, fumbling in his footsteps as he tried to take another step back.

The knife-wielding man rolled his eyes. "Kids these day. Normal people usually fork the wallet over by now." He waved the small blade dangerously close to Kyomu's face. "Look, you brat, gimme your money now before I-"

It had happened when the mugger had waved his knife in front of Kyomu's face a second time mid-sentence. The anxiety and fear that was building up inside of him due to a strange man slashing the air in front of him soon gave way to the logical thought process in his head. It was at this point Kyomu realized he was staring at a villain.

The word "villain" running through his mind caused a plethora of emotions to wells inside of him, completely overriding the previous fear he had. His earlier thoughts on villains and what they had done to his life resurfaced in his mind, and those thoughts began to mingle with the current ones he was thinking looking at the man in front of him. And out of all those emotions, there was one that was more prevalent than any other one.

It was anger. Complete anger at seeing the villain in front of him.

There were two important factors that contributed to the movement Kyomu made with his right wrist between the second wave of the knife in his face and the moment he made the actual movement. One was his arm wrist seemingly moving on its own, something he had attributed to his survival instincts moving his body for him. The other was the aforementioned anger, which did nothing but spur on the action he was attempting and succeeding at making.

A flat, circular hole with unstable edges appeared in the air between Kyomu's face and the knife, which was thrust in his direction this time instead of waved. The hand, knife and all, was thrust into the black portal before the arm immediately pulled back. Both the knife and the hand holding it had vanished, leaving a bleeding at the end of the villain's wrist.

This had all occurred within the span of two moments.

"Ahh!" The villain gripped what was left of his arm, gawking at the apparent lack of a hand as he fell to his knees. "Y-you little...! What the hell did you do to my hand!?"

Kyomu flicked his wrist again. Another black portal appeared directly beneath the villain, and his entire body fell through it. His body and very being were lost to Void.

Both portals closed. Kyomu blinked, not fully recognizing what he had just done until the events that had just transpired replayed in his own mind approximately three times. He then looked at his hands, and then to the ground where the portal had appeared that cast the villain to Void, and then back to his hands. He gave his hands a peculiar glare as he turned them back and forth.

 _"Did I... did I just kill that guy?"_

"Hail, citizen!" The sound of a boisterous voice called down to him shook Kyomu of his thoughts and caused him to turn around. A figure dropped out of the sky and landed on his feet right behind him; a man in a tight costume consisting of blues and whites. He flashed Kyomu a smile full of white teeth as he looked down on the black-haired youth.

Kyomu, for his part, had blinked a few times before he said anything. "Uh... are you a he-"

"Indeed I am, young citizen?" The hero in front of Kyomu proceeded to flex his body in what was surely an attempt at displaying his physical prowess to Kyomu, perhaps as a way of calming him down, but to Kyomu it only served to somehow make him more uncomfortable than the man he had just Voided. "I was on my midday patrol route when I heard screams coming from this dark and admittedly well-preserved alleyway! You wouldn't have happened to know anything about that, would you?"

"... Yeah, that was me," Kyomu lied, placing his hands into his pockets as he casually rocked on his feet. "I wandered in here and saw something move, and it really frightened me. It was just an alley cat, though. It ran off."

He knew what this society did to vigilantes. He bore witness to what it did to civilians that used their Quirks to kill. He didn't want to risk what would happen if he actually told the truth. So he had lied with a completely straight face to the hero while keeping his tone as normal as possible.

He wasn't sorry in the slightest.

"Oh! Well, thank goodness!" The hero let out a loud and slightly annoying laugh as he bent his knees. "It seems this was nothing more than a false alarm, in which case I shall take my leave to resume my heroic duties! Farewell, young man! And try not to wander into any more dark alleys such as this! You never know what kind of nefarious despots lie in waiting to prey on citizens such as you!" He rapidly began to ascend into the wait, rapidly waving at the child as he flew away.

"Uh, yeah, bye. I guess." Kyomu gave his own awkward wave as the hero disappeared from sight. "Man, and I thought All Might talked weird on TV, but _that_ guy... geez."

He took a single step forwards, and then stopped when his foot his something. He looked down, his eyebrow quirking in curiosity when he saw a wallet lying on the ground. He picked it up, opening it up to find an obscene amount of yen bills stuffed into the folds.

 _"This must be the wallet that villain kept all his victims' money in,"_ Kyomu thought as he rifled through the wallet. It only took him one glance to see that there was fifty-thousand yen inside of it. _"Well, guess he doesn't need it anymore. And taking it to the police would make things too complicated. I promised the others I'd bring something back, too."_

So Kyomu, deciding the easiest approach would be to just keep the money, pocketed all of the bills. He then opened a small portal and tossed the wallet it, casting it to Void. He then whistled a jaunty tune as he meandered out of the alleyway and back onto the main sidewalks.

 _"Huh... what I did back there... it was so easy. I wonder why heroes don't kill villains?"_ he idly mused.

* * *

Solitude.

It could really get to most guys after awhile.

"It's profound is what it is. A veritable masterpiece buried among countless works of absolute drivel. It's all tripe compared to this."

Hikari was pretty sure he'd managed to keep himself together after having spent all these years in a cell, though.

"I mean, I don't know why nobody else sees what I see in this book. The struggle of a creature's survival as it attempts to sustain itself through a long and arduous life cycle until it undergoes metamorphosis into the ideal image of its species. It-s'-it's- you know what it is? It's a metaphor. It's a metaphor for the life cycle of a human being as it goes through society, eating up resource after resource until they grow into an adult, and with it obtain wisdom accumulated over their entire lifespan thus far to be used to become a productive member of society to give back everything it took to get so far. It's genius. This book's genius."

Hikari threw the book on his desk without a care in the world.

It read _The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar._ Japan-localized.

Not a lot of books flew through prison.

The white-haired boy sighed, hopping into his desk's chair and propping his feet up on the edge. He couldn't call his five-year incarceration _fun_ , purely based off the fact that, no, there wasn't anything fun to do when you were locked into a single room your entire life that lacked so much as a window. After a while of good behavior, though, they had given him a lamp.

See, it turned out that, while he was a convicted villain, he was still a human being and a minor at that, so he was given some rights in light of his good behavior. That and the fact he was required to get some form of basic education into his life. So in exchange for doing his daily-required mental exercises and schoolwork, he didn't get to wallow every single day in complete darkness. He also get to have some recreational books here and there to pass the time.

The selection of books was very poor and the lamp barely lit anything past the desk, but it was better than nothing.

"Okay, let's see..." Hikari's hand reached towards a pile of books. He plucked the topmost book off the pile and flipped it open, his crimson eyes scanning the interior. "Alright, math. Done." He tossed the books over his shoulder and reached for another. "History, done. Language arts, done. Science, done. My patience, oh, that was done years ago now, wasn't it?"

He looked past all the educational books full of problems he'd scribbled to completion in record time as per usual at the recreational books underneath. They were mainly children's books for those of his age, and they were almost all works of garbage that always served to amuse him for no more than about four seconds, five on a good day. Except the caterpillar one, of course. That one was simply art.

"Well, I guess the only thing left to do-" he extended his index finger in front of his face, "- is get some practice in, huh?"

Light from the lamp's bulb flew out in wisps to the tip of Hikari's finger, twisting and swirling into a ball. He furrowed his brow, and the ball of light started to twist and turn into more intricate and complicated shapes.

It had become routine for him ever since he got the lamp. He got some practice in with his Quirk whenever he could. Absorbing light, manipulating it, shaping it... he'd found over the years that there was a lot he could with this Quirk of his. The ability to manipulate light. To what degree, though, he had absolutely no clue. There was only so much power he could absorb out of a cheap lamp. And though he was practicing, the small degree he could do didn't give him much experience.

On the bright side, those years of mediocre practice added.

"Oh, am I glad that they never sprung for cameras in my cell," Hikari muttered as he changed the light he held into a string that coiled around his finger. "It would have been a lot harder to do all this if they were watching me all the time. Creepy, too."

The string scattered into fragments, and the fragments gathered around and re-shaped into two floating cogs of light that were slowly turning against one another. Hikari sighed in satisfaction, leaning back against his chair and looking towards the sealed doorway to his cell.

"I'm not going to stay here forever just for protecting you, brother," he muttered. "One day I'll get good enough at my powers that I'll break out of this place. I'll find you. Then we can... we can just be together again. I don't care who tries to stop me."

* * *

Sunflower Orphanage. Kyomu had learned that some things never changed. In the five years he'd been at this orphanage, he'd come to see that this was one of the things in life that didn't change.

Technically, he was supposed to only live here for the duration it took for somebody to adopt him. That had never happened. In fact, in the five years he'd come to live here he'd only ever seen once single adoption. And that adoption had been a special case where the adoptee had been an infant and the adopters had been parents who couldn't conceive a child of their own, and so wanted a child as young as possible to simulate them having a baby of their own.

Kyomu and the rest of the children had been real quiet that day.

"Kyomu! Hey guys, big bro's back!"

He hadn't even been able to make it five steps into the orphanage's grounds before he was swarmed by a group of five-year olds.

"H-hey guys, c'mon. Easy." He pried one of the children that had jumped on him off his chest, placing them down next to two other children that had run up with the one that had jumped on him. "I just got back. Can't a guy get at least a minute to himself before you start this?"

A girl with blue skin, the one that had jumped on him, kept repeatedly bouncing on her feet. "But you've been gone for hours, big bro! We missed you!"

"Yeah. It's been a real bummer without you here, bro," said a boy with yellow-green scales covering his neck. He blinked his slit eyes up at Kyomu while flicking out a forked tongue.

"Mm. I'd say the real bummer is the fact you guys were bummed while I was out." He tilted his head down at the three children while closing a single eye and grinning. "Gotta say, that fact really bums me out."

The third child, one in a red shirt who besides being a bit chubby looked completely normal compared to the other two children, bumped a fist against Kyomu's knee. "C'mon, Kyomu, you know we're only kidding," he said. "You know. Mostly."

"Gah, I dunno, Ren. Not sure if those words are enough to mentally reassure me. Might need to go to my room. Sleep it off." Kyomu made a big show of leaning his whole body backwards as he let out an incredibly loud yawn. "'Cause _maaaan_ I'm beat..."

He took large, overly-dramatized steps while the children behind him watched from behind his back. Then suddenly, he stopped and turned around towards the kids.

"Wait-wait-wait, oh, how'd I almost forget? I gotcha guys a little somethin'-somethin'." His grin grew wider when he saw the children's eyes widen in expectation. "Now, I left it around... wait, where _did_ I leave it?"

He reached a hand into his pocket, quietly muttering to himself as he rifled around. The children's eyes only grew wider as the hand sunk further and further into the pocket, and eventually his whole arm had sunken in.

"Okay, wait, maybe it was in the other pocket."

The three children started to laugh when the arm that had sunken into Kyomu's left pocket began to rise out of the right pocket. The hand was empty.

"What? Seriously? Gotta be kiddin'..." Kyomu pulled his arm back through both of the pockets, rubbing a hand behind his head as a feigned a look of confusion before a look of realization came to his eyes. He snapped his fingers and reached down, pulling his worn, black sneaker off his foot and twirling it in his grasp. "Okay, this time for sure!"

He wasted no time in plunging his entire hand into the shoe, an act that served to send all three children into a fit of giggles as they tried and failed to keep themselves on their feet. The look of dissatisfaction that spread across Kyomu's face only made them giggle louder as he pulled his arm out, yet again empty-handed.

"Man, this is embarrassing. Guess I lost it." He slipped his sneaker back on and shrugged. "Ah, well. This'll have to do."

He could have sworn their eyes started to sparkle when he pulled a bag full of candy out from his right pocket and tossed it their ways. Three pairs of hands greedily reached for the bag and quite literally tore the bag open, the three grabbing as much of the candy as they could. They mumbled their thanks to Kyomu, mouths full of candy and all, who waved his acknowledgement to them as he walked away with a small smile on his face.

"Oh, Kyomu..." There was somebody standing at the entrance to the actual orphanage. An aged woman with gray hair and large, faded butterfly wings sticking out of her back who was silently chuckling into her mouth as she looked down at the boy. "You know, technically I'm supposed to reprimand you for using your Quirk like that."

"But you're not gonna 'cause I'm such a cool guy, right?" Kyomu asked, pointing his index fingers at the old woman.

She sighed, shaking her head as she opened the door for them both to enter through. "Only because you're one of the only things that makes those kids smile, Kyomu," she mumbled, closing the door behind her.

"Heh, that, too. I'm practically the oldest kid here, after all. Makin' 'em smile like that's part of the whole 'role model' thing, ain't it?" The two walked through a featureless, slightly dilapidated hallway. A pair of children had run past the pair and shouted their greetings to Kyomu, and then kept running. "Those Quirk restrictions laws are way too strict, you know. What next? They're gonna arrest me for using my legs?"

"It's because you're a minor," the old woman said. "You get more reign over your Quirk when you turn older."

"And yet cops'll still look at ya sideways if you're so much as glowing," Kyomu muttered. "You don't think Japan's just a little too jumpy over civilian Quirk usage, Mrs. Mizo?"

The aged woman batted her chocolate-brown eyes down at Kyomu. "I'm honestly too old to care about things like that, dear," she said. "I run an orphanage. My first concern is for the well-being of all the children here, not what the law says we can and can't use our powers for."

Kyomu shrugged. "Fair enough," he conceded. "Hey, by the way, can I use the computer? I gotta research some stuff."

"Oh?" She tilted her head. "Another school project?"

He shook his head. "Nah, just... I saw something in town that got me thinking about something. Wanted to do a little reading-up on it. So can I go, or...?"

"Sure, sure. As long as nobody else it on it, go wild. Just don't spend too long on it." Kyomu nodded his thanks to her and turned down another hallway. "And Kyomu?" he stopped and turned his head towards Mizo. "Thanks again. For always cheering the children up. I know it's hard being the oldest... patron here and everything-"

"Don't worry about it." The black-haired boy laced his fingers behind his head and continued walking down the hallway. "Just keep doing what you do best, Mrs. Mizo. And make sure this roof doesn't fall down on all our heads. We don't exactly have another one to go to."

The old woman blinked in surprise at Kyomu's words, and then smiled again. "I'll try my best," she promised.

* * *

The fact of the matter was that orphanages weren't exactly brimming with funds, unless of course you happened to land at one of the big city orphanages that were funded my multiple charities and even some hero firms. Sunflower was, unfortunately, not one of those. The orphanage still received funds from the government, sure, but usually it only covered bare necessities. Education wasn't even covered by the place; all the children who lived their had to go to local, underfunded public schools.

As a consequence of this, the orphanage building, while up to code, wasn't exactly in pristine condition. There at least wasn't any leaky ceilings- yet. Or termites. Or anything else that would classify as a structural disaster. And on the occasion there was a slight emergency, Mizo always managed to scrape the funds up from somewhere.

Those funds didn't cover a new computer, though. As best as Kyomu could figure, it was a model from the early 2000's. There was only one, too, as it was meant for school purposes. The wi-fi was, as the very least, government-provided, so there was that.

At the moment, Kyomu was scrolling through pages upon pages of documents on the computer, eyes scrolling as an almost dizzying speed as he read. He'd been at this for around half an hour, going from source to source to compile as much information as possible. None of it made him happy.

 _"Heroes don't kill. It's a staple of the business,"_ he thought to himself as he scrolled through another page of information. _"There's only a few cases in all of hero history where a hero killed, and those were in isolated incidents of self-defense where no other option was available to them. And even then most of the time their license is revoked as a result."_

Heroes were symbols of peace. Killing wasn't peaceful, nor was it civilized in the eyes of the people. Even police had stringent rules on killing, and, technically speaking, they had more powers than heroes did. And they enforced the law. Heroes, at the very end of the day, were government-sanctioned enforces meant to deal with villains that were either a nuisance for cops are too dangerous for cops, or government-sanctioned rescuers in the event of accidents and disasters. But to the people they were more than that. Beacons of hope. Role models. Ideal moral pillars for the public.

Killing was a big no-no for a moral pillar. That was up for the courts to decide.

And these days there wasn't a lot of lethal decisions going on in court.

 _"Capital punishment has been on the decline every year for decades now according to these official statistics. There hasn't even been one this year, and it's almost October. It's crazy."_ He scrolled down a few paragraphs. _"More and more arrests are being made by heroes too instead of just regular police. At this point they're just good for petty crimes and that's it. And any villain heroes catch, even super-villains, are just sent straight to prison. Some stay in there for life. Some get out."_ He clicked over to a new tab. _"That's the problem, isn't it?"_

He'd clicked to a web-page of public access villain records. He had one villain in particular pulled up. One dressed in dark clothing with knives jutting out of his fingers. The mouse Kyomu was holding began to creak under his grip.

 _"Hirose Kenji. Quirk: Ten-Finger Fillet... because of course he'd name it something like that."_ The boy rolled his eyes. _"The one that ruined everything for my family, and the one I accidentally killed that night. He was a burglar that snuck into the homes of various heroes to steal and pawn their possessions. Even stabbed a hero once with that nasty Quirk of his, though they lived through that."_ His eyes narrowed on a paragraph of information. _"He was arrested and jailed twice, and was arrested for a third time and sent to prison after stabbing the hero he was stealing from. Got parole for good behavior years later, and after that... nothing. Website lists him as missing."_ He scoffed. _"Yeah, I scattered his atoms to Void. Don't think they'll be finding him anytime soon._

 _"What's the point of imprisoning villains?"_ Kyomu turned the computer off and folded his legs on contemplation. _"There's tons of cases where villains went back to villainy once they're released from jail or prison. In fact, from everything I read it seems like there's more villains that return to villainy than those that go straight. So why let them out at all? Why not just lock them up forever?"_ His eyes narrowed. _"No... why even go that far? Wasting all those resources keeping people with dangerous powers locked up and alive until the day they die... what's the point? So they can reflect on their wrongdoings? What's the point of that if they're just gonna be locked up until they die? The end result's the same, isn't it? So why not just execute them? It's faster. It's easier."_

Kyomu stared down at his hand. _"It's because you can't quantify something as precious as life. As the human soul. But shouldn't the reverse be true as well? The loss of a life can't be quantified in the same way a living soul can't be quantified. And yet the law tries quantifying it by measuring prison sentences for crimes like that. And the answer to punish a killer is to lock them up for a time dependent on who they murdered? Why do they get to translate the value of a life into punishment? Killing villains is just... is just solves the problem then and there!"_ he clenched his fist. _"If they had just kept Hirose locked up forever, or better yet just killed him... he never would have tried to steal from our home. He wouldn't have stabbed my parents. My Quirk awakening wouldn't have gone haywire like it did. Hikari would still be here. My whole family would. How many people have suffered like I have because there's no permanent solution for some villains...?_

 _"And killing... it's not so bad at all."_ Kyomu's eyes widened. _"I've done it twice now. Both times I didn't feel anything. I was just... glad that they were gone. That they couldn't hurt anybody anymore. Hirose can't break into people's homes and stab anybody anymore. That guy from the alley can't lure people into his trap and rob them anymore. They'll never be locked away for a bit only to do it again once they get out. So killing, it... it works. It's fine. But the law doesn't say it's fine."_ Black wisps began to form and circulate around Kyomu's clenched hand. _"My Quirk, Void, can kill so easily. And not only that, it completely erases anything it kills. Bodies, blood, weapons, evidence. Nobody knows what happened to Hirose but Hikari. Nobody'll know what happened to that alley villain. The hero that checked up on me didn't even have a clue. My solution for villains... it works."_ He shook the wisps away from his hand. _"Killing is illegal. If I don't get caught though, if nobody knows, it's fine. I'd be doing more good killing villains than heroes do. I've_ already _done more good than some heroes! But how would I be able to find villains? I can't just... unless..."_

"Kyomu?" The black-haired boy's head shot up. Old lady Mizo was looking down at him, concern written in her face as she eyed him up and down. "You okay, sweetheart? You've been here for awhile now. And you looked really unwell right there."

"Did I?" he absentmindedly mumbled. He quickly composed himself and smiled up at the old orphanage owner. "Sorry for worrying you like that, Mrs. Mizo. Just have a lot of information to sort through. I'm done here."

"Ah. Alright." She turned around and began to leave the boy alone. "There's some things I need to attend to. If you need anything, Kyomu, you know where to find me."

Kyomu nodded, still sitting in the chair and deep in thought. His head suddenly picked up though, and he called out for the winged lady just as she reached the doorway. "Hey, Mrs. Mizo. A question."

She looked back at the boy. "Yes?"

"You... do you think..." An unsure look came across Kyomu as he thought about the question he was about to ask. But then his eyes wandered to the computer he had just been looking at, and his features straightened back. After swallowing a lump in his throat, he turned his head and locked eyes with the aged woman. "Ya think I got what it takes to become a professional hero?"


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N- Welcome to the part of the Macadamia fanfic that the... (checks story stats) five of you reading this have probably been waiting for. Maybe. I don't know.**

 **(And yes, I'm one of _those_ people)**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 6- Exam**

* * *

 **5 years later**

 _Snap!_

"Ah, you've gotta be kidding me..."

It seemed like the quality of life in Kyomu's clothing was destined remain at the same status it had been when he had first arrived at the orphanage ten years ago: ragged. The black sneakers alone were so worn down that one of the shoelaces had snapped in half while he was trying to tie it.

His dark pants and shirt wasn't in any better condition, either. The pants were rife with holes and the t-shirt was so worn that the black coloring was almost faded. If anybody on the street were to see him in this, it would look less like he came from a respectable shelter for underage youths and more like he came off the streets.

It's not that he cared about any of that, of course. He just didn't want an article of clothes falling away during the exam. He didn't think he'd ever be able to live down losing his pants in front of a bunch of strangers.

"Kyomu?" There was a soft knock at his door, and after a moment it was opened. Mizo peaked her head into the almost barren room, her head looking around before settling onto Kyomu. "Oh, there you are. Your exam is in an hour, you know."

"I'm on top of it," he muttered, discarding the destroyed shoelace and moving on to try and tie the other one. "Just getting ready is all."

The old orphanage owner sighed heavily, opening the door fully and stepping into his room. "I wish we could do something about your clothes," she muttered. "I know we don't buy you new clothes nearly often as we should, but, well, the money..."

"You need to look out for the well being of the orphanage and the other children. It's fine." Kyomu finished tying his remaining shoelace and looked up to face the woman. He tilted his head and gave her a small smile. "It's just clothes," he said, "it isn't going to affect anything."

She huffed, crossing her arms. "The least that your school could do for you is provide you with a uniform," she grumbled. "Having you go out in what basically amounts to rags... I'm almost ashamed."

"It's fine. Really." He scratched the back of his head as he looked out the one window of his room. He saw some of the other children playing nearby. "That school's too cheap to do anything about uniforms, anyways. The fact I was even given access to the UA entrance exams was a miracle in of itself. I feel like half of the kids in that school don't even make it to high school, let alone the most prestigious one in the country."

It was a memory that almost made him grimace in front of Mizo. It'd been an unnecessary struggle to make his way towards the written entrance exams alone to the hero academy. It's not that the option wasn't _there_ \- it was just that a student at the school he went to hadn't applied to something that even resembled anything prestigious in years. They didn't even have the forms necessary for him to apply, and he had to to go out of his way to acquire them on his own. That in of itself had been a long enough paper hunt to give him a headache.

But fortunately he'd aced that written exam, so that was a plus. However, the written portion was only half the grade. There was a practical exam as well, which was what he was getting ready to go to at this moment. What the test entailed, he had no clue. He'd heard rumors online that it was a different test every year, so it was virtually impossible to predict what it could be. This meant that there was no way for him to prepare whatsoever. So in the end he'd decided he'd just wing it as he went.

All to get into UA. The hero academy that churned out the best heroes in all of Japan. Any aspiring hero-to-be dreamed of going there.

It's where he wanted to go. It was the best chance he had at accomplishing his dream.

"I still can't believe you managed to make it this far," Mizo marveled from besides his bed. "I mean, UA. Wow. I never would have thought one of my orphanage's children would be able to make it to such a high a place as that."

"You had doubts?" There'd been almost a twinkle in the old woman's eyes as she thought about Kyomu's accomplishments. They'd been snuffed out when he made that remark, which caused her to look down at a smirking Kyomu. "Gee, Mrs. Mizo, thanks for the vote of confidence. And here I thought there was somebody actually rooting for me."

"I-I-I-I didn't mean to say- I mean," Mizo stammered, waving her hands in front of her face. Kyomu let out a light chuckle at the sight, causing her to pout. "Oh, you're just terrible."

"I need get my fun in somewhere." He hopped off his bed and made his way towards the door. "Anyways, I gotta go. I'll be late if I wait any longer to go. Be back as soon as can, alr-"

He stopped when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his frame. An embarrassed smile came to his lips as he tugged on Mizo's arms. "C'mon, lady, what if one of the kids saw this? It'll ruin my image."

"I just... I'm really proud of you. For how far you've come," she said. "I'm sure you'll make a great hero someday."

"... Thanks." He gently pried her hands away from him. "Seriously, though, I gotta go." He stepped towards the doorway, turning around briefly to look at the old woman who had cared for him for a whole decade smiling warmly at him. He gave her a small wave as he exited the room, hurrying his way out of the orphanage.

He'd gone as far as the courtyard before he heard the calls of his names. On the large rocks surrounding the orphanage were dozens of children calling out and waving to him, big smile on their faces as they cheered him on. The most notable ones was a portly child with a red shirt, a blue skinned girl, and a boy with scales covering his neck. The three of them were at the head of the crowd of children seeing him off, and they along with every other child there were shouting words of encouragement at him.

"You're gonna do great, Kyomu!"

"Show 'em who's the boss, big bro!"

"Knock them dead, Kyomu!"

"Ya see that guy right there guys is Kyomu and Kyomu bein' Kyomu means that Kyomu's gonna be the best 'cause he's Kyomu ya feel me oh boy sonny that boy there he gonna show 'em all what's what that's what he'll do yessiree that'll do for Kyomu alright yeah that'll do."

"KYOMU! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!"

"Kyomu! Don't you dare come back a failure! Show them that us nobodies are just as good as those city guys!"

"You go, Kyomu."

Part of Kyomu wished that he had a hoodie instead of a shirt. He would have been able to hide the embarrassment spreading across his face as he began speed walking towards the orphanage's entrance while awkwardly waving at the children. It didn't help they were holding up a large banner of his name written in crayon. He was pretty sure they'd spent an entire day making that thing.

"Thanks for the support, guys," he whispered. None of the children had been able to hear him, except maybe for that one with the overly large ears, but he was fairly certain his reaction towards them all was enough indication that he appreciated their efforts. Of course it was something too embarrassing to admit though, "Really, thanks. I needed it."

* * *

The trip to the actual examination area had been the longest serious of walks and train transfers he'd ever been on in his life, but in the end he'd made it. A large, domed building with larger, walled-off sections of land behind in seemed to loom in front of Kyomu as he climbed up the steps towards the examination building.

 _"Man, there's a lot of examinees here, huh?"_ To his left and to his right, as well as in front and even behind him, were other students around his age making their way towards the same destination as him. Some had taken moments to stop and talk in groups while others made their way towards the building's entrance at a leisurely pace. Some were even frozen on the spot, too enamored by the examination building to move forwards. _"There's only so many spots for UA's hero course, too. I guess that means they're making it out to be really competitive."_ He frowned. _"Competition. They're already putting obstacles in front of me, and I haven't even taken the second exam yet, let alone been accepted."_

He'd bumped into somebody in his musing, startling him and causing him to stumble slightly. The person he'd bumped into hadn't been as quick on their feet, and had nearly fallen right onto their face had Kyomu not grabbed their uniform's collar and hauled them back up to their feet.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"O-oh, no, it's fine," came the soft-spoken voice of the person he'd accidentally knocked down. A head topped with dark, almost green and messy hair looked up into Kyomu's blue eyes as he gave him a nervous smile. "I was just kind of muttering to myself and really the only thing I could see was my feet so please you really don't have to apologize I don't-"

 _"I feel like there's something off with this one."_ The admittedly short boy Kyomu had bumped into continued to ramble endlessly under his breath as Kyomu took a closer look at his face. A flash of recognition went through him when he had looked closer. _"He looks kind of familiar... isn't he...? Oh, it totally is. Huh. Small world."_

"Aren't you-" The boy cut his ramblings off and allowed a startled Kyomu to continue, "- Midoriya?" The small, green-eyed teen blinked. "Your name. Is it not Midoriya?"

Once again, he blinked. "I-it is, but, um... do I know you from somewhere?" He squinted his eyes in an attempt to try and pin Kyomu's face, but from the blank look he was getting Kyomu assumed he wasn't remembered.

"Aw, seriously? You forgot me?" he asked. "We met once a decade or so ago. In the park that one time? By the stream?"

"The park...?" Midoriya mumbled. "Let me think... stream in the park, huh? I don't really... oh!" His face lit up in recognition. "You're the brother of that person that punched one of Kacchan's friends, right? Shinko."

"Shinka," Kyomu corrected with a slump in his shoulders.

"Right, Shinka! Wow, your memory is amazing! How'd you remember me so clearly?"

He shrugged. "Good memory. You seem to be doing well since then. Goin' for hero and everything, huh? Got your Quirk and everything?"

The nervous boy beamed up at Kyomu was such sudden enthusiasm that Kyomu was almost startled from the sudden shift. "Y-yeah, totally! Mine, uh, came a bit later than I would have liked..." A nervous chuckle followed this statement, "but other than that, yeah, I'm trying to make it to the hero spot. What about you?"

"I got mine," Kyomu said. "And... there's not much else to say, I guess. I wanna be a hero. UA's a good school. Now I'm here." He shrugged. "That's about it."

Midoriya nodded, his eyes moving down from Kyomu's face to his clothes. An uncertain look came across his face. "Um, Shinka?"

"Yeah?"

"Your clothes..." The small teen raised a finger to his worn shirt. "Shouldn't you have worn something more... presentable? Or at least your school's uniform?"

Kyomu sighed. And here he'd hoped nobody would point his clothes out. "Mine doesn't have uniforms," he said.

"O-oh. But don't you think what you have on right now is a bit inappropriate?"

"Don't care." Kyome turned his back to Midoriya, shoving his hands into his pockets as he walked towards the exam building's entrance. "Seeya 'round, Midoriya. Hope we don't cross paths in the exams."

"Huh? What is that supposed to mean?"

"You didn't figure it out?" He looked back at Midoriya as he walked, who cast Kyomu a confused look. "Oh, well, don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll explain everything when the exam starts." He waved a hand. "Best of luck and all that."

He didn't want to talk to the short teen anymore after that. Not that he wasn't a nice enough boy; the conversation about his clothing had just put him off. He didn't want it to lead into any unnecessary questions, and he didn't want to dredge up any bad memories while trying to avoid those questions. He just wanted to focus on the exams right now.

The exams. The one thing that stood between him and his dream. A dream that had come to fruition five years ago, when he'd met that villain in that alley.

 _"Heroes are wrong. Villains need to die, not be caged up."_ He stepped through the doors leading into the exam building, the interior's shadows overlapping him along with everybody else that entered. _"I'm gonna prove it to them all. Even if I have to kill villains in secret once I'm a hero to prove that I'm right. I'll show them. I'll show them all that we suffered for no reason."_

* * *

The practical exam had been explained in a large auditorium (by a particularly loud hero that got on more than some of Kyomu's nerves), and, much to the black-haired teen's surprise, wasn't actually held in the exam building. It was being held outside in a number of examination sites set up by the UA staff. Faux cities walled off in separate sections where all the applicants were separated and grouped together.

The goal? Destroy robots by any means possible.

Kyomu wasn't sure how he felt about it.

 _"You'd think that they'd be testing us on something a bit more heroic than just smashing hunks of metal,"_ Kyomu thought to himself as he rolled on the balls of his feet, staring at the large, metal gates leading into the faux city where his exam was waiting. Other applicants were waiting alongside him. _"I get that physical strength is just as important as mental strength in hero work, but robots? And whole fake cities? Where do they even get the money for this stuff?"_

UA either had some talented hands in their facilities to be able to make robots of all things for teenagers to fight, or they had a small military budget. Either way, he was slightly unsettled.

He looked around at some of the other examinees as he waited. He saw that some where looking at him in an odd way, and others were even quietly talking amongst themselves and snickering at what he assumed was his clothing. It caused him to roll his eyes. It was as annoying as he expected it would be.

Something bright had suddenly caught his eyes. When he turned to look at it, he grimaced and had to hold a hand in front of his blue eyes to shield them from the intense white light shining into his corneas. A light so bright that it was like staring straight into the sun itself. A light so bright that he couldn't look at it, and yet it was so alluring he couldn't find it in himself to avert the direction of his gaze.

"Dude, quit staring."

Kyomu lowered his hand. Another examinee was staring at him with fiery orange eyes half-slit in annoyance. Looking up revealed to Kyomu that the bright light he'd seen had been the examinee's head- he was bald. The sun had reflected off of his scalp that was so smooth that it was shining.

"Sorry," Kyomu apologized. A tinge of embarrassment went to his face as he rubbed the back of his head. "I just, your head was- I- shiny-"

"Pfft, don't sweat it, man." With a large grin, the teen patted Kyomu on the back and gave him a thumbs-up. "Name's Eikyo Sen. How about you?"

"... Shinka Kyomu," he answered slowly, looking down at an outstretched hand that was suddenly extended to him. Slowly, he reached up and shook the hand. "So, Eikyo, that's a... interesting color pallet you're using there."

The teen in front of Kyomu wore a two-part tracksuit. A very, very orange tracksuit. With hints of white here and there. And it was almost as bright as the sun shining off of Eikyo's head.

"I like orange," he said with a dismissive shrug. "What, don't like it?"

Kyomu continued to stare at the tracksuit. "It's fine enough," he decided.

"Aw, thanks. I like your look too," he said. "The whole 'dark punk' thing really suits you."

This time, Kyomu did look up. "It's not a... eh, forget it." The excited chatter of other examinees around them drew both boys' attention. "Hey, I think it's starting."

The large, metal gates leading into the faux city began to rumble. An extremely loud grinding signaled for the doors to slowly open, revealing the testing center within the large walls surrounding it. There were even a few of the robots wandering in the streets visible from here: three different types of models, one worth one point per model destroyed, a two-pointer, and a three-pointer.

All of the examinees, including Kyomu and Eikyo, stared in uncertainty as the gates fully opened. None made the first move to go into the testing center to begin destroying robots, and the first to make any kind of action was Eikyo as he looked over to Kyomu. "Should we, uh... should we start?" he asked.

Kyomu's response was to snap his fingers. A flat, black oval instantly appeared on the ground in front of him. "Dunno, but I'm going anyways," he said. His body began to tilt forwards, and he turned his head towards the orange-suited teen. "Seeya."

He dropped into the portal. Eikyo could only blink in surprised confusion as the portal disappeared with absolutely no trace of Kyomu.

Two-hundred meters directly above the center of the testing center, a black portal opened up. Kyomu's body dropped right through, the portal closing behind him as his body fell towards the ground. Black hair whipped uncontrollably past his face, and the sound of wind rushed into his ears, but the hampering of his senses didn't stop Kyomu from peering down into the city below.

 _"The other applicants have started running into the test area,"_ he observed. A small sea of teenagers in random sportswear was indeed flooding into the city from the front, and already some of the robots were under attack by them. _"It looks like they're moving from front to back and taking out any robot along the way. So the most'll be in the back."_ He looked towards the end of the city, spotting a small cluster of robots. _"Alright, that works."_

Another portal appeared under Kyomu, and then disappeared right as he went through. At the same time on ground level, near the back of the city where he'd spotted the cluster of robots, a second portal opened. Kyomu, having maintained the same speed he'd picked up from falling such a distance, sped right through the portal. His feet slid along the ground as his body slid towards the nearest robot, his face nonchalant as he raised a single leg. All momentum was cut off the second he brought his led down on the large, bulky and green machine, the appendage almost cutting clean through the metallic carapace and causing it to shut down completely.

"Ah! Hot, hot, hot, hot...!" Kyomu hopped on his feet as a burning sensation sprouted on his soles. He held each one up one at a time, and then began to blow on them. At the same time, he looked behind him at where he'd slid, seeing a small trail of rubber pieces behind him. And looking at the bottom of his shoes, he could see that the soles had been scraped away almost completely from the single maneuver alone. "Gah, stupid cheap shoes... guess I'm not using that move again."

Electronic sparking from below him drew his attention. He looked down, seeing the machine he'd destroyed resting at his feet. "Alright, that's a... ah, I didn't pay attention to the diagrams." He cursed at himself silently for forgetting which model represented which point amount as he crouched down to examine it. "Well, whatever. My score'll go up at least."

He reached out and grabbed a piece of the robot's metal carapace. To his surprise, when he applied light pressure the metal gave way under his grip. "Huh. This metal is super cheap," he muttered to himself. "Makes sense, I guess. They're pinning untrained teenagers against these things, after all." His eyes trailed from his hand to his bicep. "Or maybe it's not soft metal at all..."

A shadow falling over him interrupted his mutterings. He turned his head, his eyes unflinchingly looking at another robot looming right over his shoulder. The vaguely scorpion-looking machine affixed it's red sensors on him very briefly before it thrust a metal pincer directly towards his face. Kyomu, in turn, raised a hand in order to counter it.

He didn't have to.

A hand not belonging to Kyomu stretched out in front of Kyomu and, much to his surprise, completely stopped the pincer in its tracks. When he traced the arm down to its owner, Kyomu was even further surprised to see the applicant dressed in orange, Eikyo, standing in front of Kyomu and smiling down at him.

"Heya. Long time no see, buddy." Orange energy, sparking and crackling much like electricity, began arcing out from the hand that had stopped the pincer from hitting Kyomu. It danced down Eikyo's arm, across his chest, and ended at his other hand, which had clenched into a fist. "You had some pretty sick moves back there! But but check _this_ out!"

With a yell- a strange, high-pitched yell that had Kyomu quirking an eyebrow- Eikyo brought the sparking fist down on the robot. His fist cleaved right through the front of the machine, causing it to wobble on its four legs until it fell to the ground.

"Huh." Kyomu stood up, looking at the dead machine and then at Eikyo. The orange energy surrounding his fist had disappeared. "So that's your Quirk. Cool."

"Really? You mean it?" Eikyo looked at his fist. "I mean I always thought it was kinda lacking in some areas, but-"

Kyomu grasped Eikyo's shoulder mid-sentence and tossed him to the side. At the same time, he snapped the fingers on his other hand, causing a black portal to appear right in front of him. The claw of the testing robot that had snuck up behind Eikyo sunk into the portal right as it closed, leaving the machine with one less arm. Kyomu then punched it, aiming right for the red sensors that seemed to stare at him. His fist sunk into the robot, and after grabbing a cluster of wires and circuits, he pulled. The machine slowly whirred to a halt as Kyomu discarded the electronic insides.

Eikyo walked up behind him, laughing loudly at the destroyed robot. "Ah man, thanks!" he said. He then looked ahead, spotting five more machines approaching them. "Oh, look. More. What say we-"

"I got it." Kyomu snapped his fingers. Black disks appeared through the center of each of the five machines briefly, and then disappeared. The robots, having been bisected by Kyomu's portals, fell to halves as they died off.

His mouth gaping, Eikyo's readied arms had dropped to his side when he saw the destruction caused by Kyomu's Quirk. "Geez, dude..." he whispered, head turning to the black-haired teen who looked at him out from the corner of his eyes.

"We should probably split up. We'll just get in the way of our individual point capitalization otherwise," he advised. "How about I go left and you go right? From what I saw up in the sky, there were plenty of robots on either side. Should be enough for the both of us, and with our Quirks we should be able to take them out before anybody else gets here."

There had been a bit of confusion on Eikyo's face, and even more than a bit of shock at the words he had said. Kyomu, for his part, had no idea why Eikyo's face had decided to react in such a way. Shortly afterwards, though, his face had lit up into ones of excitement as his orange eyes glittered at Kyomu's.

"Sure, man. Sounds like a plan!"

* * *

It was an international staple in the teaching community that large-scale and significant tests, such as an application exam, were to be monitored by appropriate teaching staff and administrators. Japan teaching laws weren't too dissimilar in that regard compared to the rest of the world, and to something as important as a hero course entry exam, that monitoring was doubly important.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact they were sicking custom-made assault robots on teenagers and needed the camera footage in the case of any severe accidents and impending lawsuits. The robots were programmed not to rip the limbs off of examinees. It was completely and assuredly safe.

The fact that the nurse with the healing Quirk was on standby was just a formality.

Anyways, the exam needed monitoring, and the camera equipment was already present. So to mitigate the possibility on on-site staff sent to watch the proceedings without actually getting in the way of applicants, teachers and staff of UA watched the exam from a completely safe and robot-free monitoring room. Teachers sat around monitors, watching the applicants' performance and grading them based on accomplishments via allocating points based on actions. At the end of the exam, points were tallied and the ones that did the best were the ones that accumulated the most points.

"Geez, what's that kid's name there? Bakugo?" A teacher asked as she stared at one of the monitors. She whistled, scribbling numbers down on a clipboard as she continued to observe the student. "I've never seen somebody rack up so many villain points in this test before. And he hasn't even accumulated any rescue points!"

"Yeah, he's pretty good. He doesn't have anything on this kid over here, though," a gas-masked teacher pointed out as he nodded towards a monitor. It was one with Kyomu on it, showing his zipping from point to point using his Void portals to get to as many robots as possible. Whether felled by his own physical prowess or by his Quirk, any robot sighted by him was destroyed.

A heavily-muscled teacher besides the female one looked down at his clipboard. "Oh, that's the one that just helped that other applicant, isn't it? What's his name?" He flipped through a few pages on his clipboard, mumbling to himself. "Shinka Kyomu, huh? Feel like I've heard that name from somewhere."

Some of the teachers in the room were completely dismissal of the name. A notable few flinched at the name, and then immediately looked towards the monitor showing the black-haired teen. They quickly looked away in quieted mumbles, scribbling down on their clipboards.

* * *

With a loud crunch, another robot was crushed under Kyomu's foot- which by now, while not having gone raw, was especially starting to annoy him seeing as he had no soles on his sneakers- as he stretched his arms out to the side. The exam was time-limited, and he'd been counting the seconds down in his head since the moment the large gates leading to the testing cite had opened. By his estimation, there wasn't much time left. Thirty seconds to a minute at most. And by now he'd destroyed enough robots that he didn't think that anything he did from now would make too heavy of a difference.

So he stepped back, sighing softly as he twisting his body from side-to-side and moving his head around, eliciting many small pops out from his neck. He ran around with his Quirk like that all the time at the orphanage for fun, but he never added robot-smashing into that bi-annual routine. He didn't feel tired from it, though- he was just sick of destroying robots.

"Yo, dude!" Kyomu turned his head around. The bald examinee from earlier had run up to him, big smile on his face as he waved at Kyomu. "Shinka, man, you were on point with those directions. Had tons of robots there to smash." He looked past Kyomu's shoulder. His smile brightened when he saw the metal trail of destruction behind the black-haired teen. "See you didn't have any trouble, either."

Kyomu sent a passive blink at Eikyo's way. "Yes, there was no robot deficit. Fortunately." He placed his hands into his pockets. "Not much time left, either."

"Think we did good?" Eikyo asked. "I mean, we totaled a whole bunch of them, right? We had to get some decent score at least."

Kyomu would have answered the bald teen if it weren't for the fact that the ground began to rumble. The tremor only lasted for a second before it disappeared, though another short tremor soon followed. A slow series of tremors that were equally spaced from each other. Almost life footsteps.

It was suddenly very dark, too.

"U-uh, dude?" Very weakly, Eikyo raised a shaking finger up past Kyomu. "Robot. Big robot."

"Huh?" Kyomu turned around. A ridiculous sight greeted him. "... How much money is this school made of...?"

What stood behind Kyomu was a robot larger than any other he or Eikyo had faced in the duration of the exam. It incorporated the same style as the rest of them: green plating, red sensor-eyes, multiple legs, and slightly menacing and yet not too menacing pincers for hands. What set this one apart from the rest, however, was the fact that this one was the size of a building. Not a small one, either. A decently sized building if anything.

It made Kyomu very worried over how the school used it's budget. It also made him wonder just how deep that budget was.

"That must be the zero-pointer," Kyomu mused to himself as he stared up at the gargantuan machine. Eikyo, who stood besides Kyomu, was too frightened to comment. "They said something about a large obstacle-type enemy being in the exam, didn't they? You'd think it's a bit late to roll it out at this point, right, Eikyo?" He looked to his side at Eikyo. He was still frozen from fright. "Eikyo, come on. You're making yourself look bad."

Eikyo's eyes snapped towards Kyomu. The rest of his body was still fixed in the general direction of the large robot looming over them. "Shinka, there is a giant robot _right there_. I don't know how you're acting so calm right now."

"Is that what you're so worried about?" Shaking his head with a sigh, Kyomu held a hand up and out from his pocket and snapped his fingers. A black portal opened up under the robot, and the whole building-sized machine fell to Void. The portal was closed, and any trace of the robot ever existing was erased. "There. Better?"

The orange eyes of Eikyo almost popped from his head as he whipped it towards Kyomu, mouth opening up and down as he tried to formulate words. He then turned back towards the spot where the robot had been, and then back to Kyomu. He did this a dizzying number of times, and eventually Kyomu began scratching his head in confusion. Eikyo continued to mouth soundless words even as a loud buzzer rang out and the annoying announcer from earlier called it time for the exam.

"Eikyo?" Kyomu waved a hand over the examinee's face, concern growing in him. "Are you okay?"

"Hubba- huh? I mean- what- I don't-" Eikyo shook his head of confusion and stared back at Kyomu. "Duuuude, your Quirk's busted as hell."

"Is it?" Kyomu looked down at his hand. "I'm positive it's working."

"No, I mean it's broken."

"I just... I just said it's fine."

"No, I mean-!"

"Hey." Kyomu placed a hand on Eikyo's shoulder, silencing him. He then gave the bald teen a small smile. "I'm just messing with you," he said. "I know my Quirk's strong."

Once again, Eikyo gaped. This one, thankfully, lasted much shorter than the last one, and was followed by him laughing as he brushed Kyomu's hand away. "Ya got me," he chuckled.

"Heh. Yeah, I guess I did." Kyomu's eyes darted around Eikyo's, towards the exam entrance area. "Exam's over," he said. "Should we head back?"

"Oh, sure. C'mon." Eikyo nodded towards Kyomu, who fell in line with the teen as the two walked back towards the exam entrance. Eikyo's hands were laced behind his head while Kyomu's was placed in his pockets. "Surprised you didn't get in through recommendations," he noted.

Kyomu turned his head towards Eikyo in surprise. "There were recommendations?" He hadn't known that. Then again, he doubted any of the teachers at his school would have the kind of pull necessary to offer him something like that.

"You didn't even know?" Eikyo bit a laugh off. "That's rich. You would have got in for sure with a power that can just make whole robots disappear like that."

The corners of Kyomu's mouth curved slightly upwards. "Probably," he agreed. "Ah, well. Doesn't really matter. You still think we did good, right?"

"Oh, we crushed it," Eikyo assured. "Definitely. We don't have to worry about anything."

The corners rose more. "I'm glad." The two continued walking, chatting happily between themselves as the opened gates became closer.

It was a nice feeling, talking so freely to somebody of his age. He hadn't had a conversation like this in years. Nobody at his school liked him. And while the children and Mizo at the orphanage adored him, he couldn't exactly call them peers. But the words he exchanged with Eikyo, the words of kindness and small teases, made him feel different. It was almost... nostalgic, in a way. It was like the way he used to feel talking to his brother.

He missed talking like this with somebody.

"Yo, we're here." Before he knew it, the two of them had made it to the entrance exam. Many of the others had already exited and left the exam area altogether. There wasn't anything left to do once it was over. "So, uh... guess this is it, huh?"

"Huh? Oh..." Kyomu looked down as a sullen feeling came over him. Eikyo had extended a hand towards him. "Well, couldn't we... talk more...?" The hopeful glint in his eyes were extinguished when Eikyo shook his head.

"Nah, my mom's waiting to pick me up. Can't make her wait too long." He shook Kyomu's numb hand and walked past him, turning around to wave at him as he went away. "Good luck, Shinka! Hope you get into UA!"

And then he left. As quickly as Kyomu had met him, he'd left. He hadn't even found the time to say goodbye.

Forty seconds after Eikyo left Kyomu's sight, he did manage a small wave. "Bye."

* * *

 **2 weeks later**

Waiting for the test results was quickly becoming an endearing task.

Kyomu, as well as all the other applicants, were informed that the grading and selection process post-exams took a lot of time and effort. So for Kyomu, it meant more of the same for him while waiting for the results to come in. Mainly just what little of middle school he had left and hanging around at the orphanage. Some sleeping and studying were fit in there, too. More of the usual.

He wasn't too anxious over the results. He knew he did well. He was confident in his answers for the written portion, and he destroyed so many robots that he was almost positive he passed the practical. Was there a chance for failure? Yes. Was it high? No. Impossibly minuscule, actually.

Kyomu just wished they would hurry up with that letter of acceptance. Or, worst case, rejection. Or at least a letter telling him the results were on the way. At least something to assure him that the letter wasn't lost in transit. That possibility alone made him more scared of the mail losing his letter than actual failure.

Right now, he was in his bed. Too anxious and too lazy to get up despite the fact that it was noon. He didn't have school today anyways. All his final projects were done. He had nothing to do but wait for that letter.

If it didn't come today he was storming down to the postal office to find that letter himself.

 _Knock, knock!_

His head rose up from his bed. Nobody ever knocked on his door like that. Mizo's knocks were always quieter, and more drawn out. Half the children's knocks were either extremely sporadic, and the other half didn't even bother knocking. He'd lived in this orphanage for a decade. He ought to know the sounds of everybody's knocking.

But that knock... that knock was deliberately slow. Slow, yet powerful. The knock of an imposing figure purposefully holding back their strength. There was nobody like that at this orphanage.

... Unless it was the handyman that came by once in awhile. He was a sturdy fellow that would have a knock like that.

Whatever the case, Kyomu didn't have the opportunity to get up off of his bed and check to see who was at the door. He saw that the doorknob was turning, a sign that whoever it was that had knocked was letting themselves into his room. He had his right hand raised up, black wisps flowing around it as the odds of it being the handyman rapidly declined. He'd met the handyman once. He didn't seem like the type of person to let themselves into another's room without permission from an owner.

"I AM... HERE!" The door was thrust open with such gusto that one of the hinges was knocked loose from the frame. The person who burst through was absolutely the last person in all of Japan Kyomu expected. "MAKING A DRAMATIC AND SURPRISING ENTRANCE!"

There was only one man in all of Japan that had such a booming voice. One hero who wore red, white, and blue colors so extravagantly. Once hero whose golden locks shined like the sun itself and whose smile was so wide that it brought hope to all that looked at it. A hero who was so muscular that it sent any villain that looked at him nowadays quivering in their boots.

Kyomu was more focused on the broken door than All Might, however.

"You are Shinka Kyomu, I presume!" The brightly-colored hero announced, legs spread and hands pressed against his hips in a show of a heroic pose. It did nothing to draw Kyomu's gaze from the door. "I had quite a bit of trouble tracking you down! I came to deliver something to you, you see, and..." The hero's chiseled head, eyes shrouded in shadow, slowly panned down to Kyomu. "Young man! Are you paying attention?"

"... Yeah I'm listening, All Might," Kyomu mumbled. His eyes were still on the door. "Keep going."

"Er... Right!" The hero's hand shot into his pocket. "Now, you must be very confused as to why the number one hero has personally arrived on this day to deliver something to you! Well, as it happens-!"

"All Might," Kyomu interrupted, finally looking from the door to the hero. He had a cold look in his eyes that caused the hero to pause. "You broke my door."

All Might's hidden eyes went to the door. He saw how it was hanging off a single hinge, and his shoulders dropped slightly. "I see." His attention went back to Kyomu. "I apologize about the door, young Shinka, but I'm sure that the orphanage-"

"The orphanage can't afford to fix the door," Kyomu deadpanned. He rose up off of his bed, standing right in front of the number one her and looking right up into his shadowed eyes. "Money's tight. Repairs like that are expensive. So what are you going to do about it, Mr. Number One?"

"Uh..."

"You're going to fix my door." Kyomu crossed his arms, nodding towards the broken door. "There's a supply closet with the proper parts. I'll go get them for you."

"Young man, I..." All Might coughed into his fist. "I'm sorry about the door, truly, but I really just came to give you this-"

Kyomu stepped besides All Might, going into the hallway while looking back. "Ah, man, that's too bad," he said. "I mean, you must be such a busy guy with all that hero work and everything. You're so popular, I bet all the kids in the orphanage'd be thrilled to see you here. Why, they'd probably be hanging off of you for hours." A bead of sweat rolled down All Might's face. "And if you can't leave 'til you give me whatever it is you came to give me, well..."

"Young Shinka, I really-"

"Hey kids!"

"Alright!" Thick, muscled hands were clamped together in a pleading gesture as All Might moved in a burst of super speed in front of Kyomu. "I'll fix your door, but please make this as brief as possible! I have a tight schedule!"

Kyomu smirked. It was not a smirk All Might seemed to like. "Of course. _Hero_."

* * *

The number one hero of the entire world. The symbol of peace who deterred villains around every corner for decades. Somebody who pounded both villain and popularity polls alike in his place at the top of the world of heroes.

All Might. The door repairman.

 _"This isn't exactly how I thought this encounter would go..."_ the hero thought to himself. Three iron nails were held in his mouth as he pounded a fourth into Kyomu's door frame while the teenager watched from his bed, a small letter in his hand. _"I must look silly,"_ he continued, _"dressed in my hero get-up for such a menial chore like this. What would my master say at the sight of this? Or Gran Torino?"_

All of this caused a genuine smile to form on his face, which was quite the feat given the nails he held in there.

He'd met all kinds of people ever since becoming a hero. Not heroes or villains (though he'd met plenty of those), but actual, normal, everyday people. Ninety-nine percent of the time they were so happy at the sight they were practically bursting at the seams, much like a young and recent protege of his. Others remained a professional level, but still couldn't stop fanboying at his sight. He'd even had women faint at the sight of him.

And then there were the people online that took their adoration of him a bit too far. Usually in the way of doctored photos or fan stories. Stories he'd once looked up in his off time and immediately regretted.

But the reaction of Shinka Kyomu had surprised him, utterly and completely. Most teenagers would have been floored at the sight of the number one hero visiting them personally to give them life-altering mail. And he imagined that Kyomu's reaction to him wouldn't have been so cold were it not for the fact he had broken his door.

The door. Not the door itself, but rather the significance of that door breaking meant. An easily avoidable accident that would drain funds from an orphanage that could barely stand to see it go. And from how the place looked, All Might was intent on believing the young lad's words. But that was the important bit: he'd been worried about the orphanage and what these damages would mean. This boy, who was waiting for an acceptance letter and who was just visited by the number one hero. He hadn't been thinking about any of that. He was more worried about others in that one instant.

 _"Young Shinka, I can already tell... you're going to make an amazing hero with that attitude!"_ He looked over his shoulder at the young boy. His face was as implacable as it had been when he'd first arrived. _"Erk... he really needs to get his hero face down if he really wants to become one, though. He could scare villains into defeat with that stern look of his."_

"So you're gonna be a teacher at UA, huh?" Kyomu mused as he turned the UA acceptance letter over in his hand. "They're really going all-out."

A boisterous laugh escaped All Might. "You got that right!" he said. "It's the reason I came to this city, after all. Crime rates have been going down over the years thanks to the diligent work of today's heroes. I figured it was a safe time to slow down the hero work and pass on my knowledge to the younger generation!" He held a triumphant finger up. "Not to say I'll be halting in my hero duties, mind you! Ha-ha!"

"So you go to all the accepted students' homes, or what?" The sheer flippant attitude displayed by Kyomu almost caused All Might to deflate right there.

Shaking his head, All Might began to pound in another nail. "No, actually. The school pitched in for a studio to record me on holographic devices to give the students personalized messages based on their scores in the practical exams!" Another nail into the door frame. "The results this year were a bit unexpected, however. So many applicants did so well that more students were let in than normal. One of the classes now have twenty-two seats instead of twenty." The final nail. "You were one of those applicants."

"Mm." Kyomu set the letter down. "So why didn't I get a holo-message?"

"The school didn't order enough due to the unexpected class size growth. The studio only had one extra. So we had to decide who got the special treat of me personally showing up to deliver the message!" All Might stood up, testing the door by moving it left and right. He was no carpenter, but it was a fine job if he did say so himself. "It was decided that you would get that honor, young Shinka, as you scored the highest in both the written and practical exams."

The black-haired teens eyebrows rose, a reaction noted by All Might that had showed more than anything else he'd done so far. "Really. Wow." He looked down at his feet. "I mean, I figured I did pretty good, but-"

"Young Shinka." Large hands were placed on his shoulders. Kyomu looked up right into the symbol of peace's smile as he opened his mouth to speak. "I can tell you for a fact that none in the hero you are going towards have met the same tragic circumstances as you. And can tell you for a fact that very, very few people in this world that have had such an unfortunate upbringing as you have dedicated their lives towards becoming a hero, especially with a Quirk as strong as yours." He looked down. Kyomu saw a glint of blue in the shadows covering his eyes. "Shinka Kyomu. You, are special. More special than you realize."

"... So you know, huh?" he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I do, and so do the rest of the UA staff. But it matters not, young Shinka! What matters is you, and the choice you have made. The choice to enter a life of hardships not shown on the evening news and in the comics. The choice to enter the world of heroes, when you could have made a number of easier choices. Considering your circumstances, nobody would have blamed you. Even I am unsure that, if in your shoes, I would have made the same choice." Kyomu's eyes lit up at that. "Young Shinka. I will say this now, so that when you walk through those doors of UA, you do so with a smile on your face and with a clear heart. You are incredibly strong, both in mind and in body. But none of that matters when compared to what lies in here." He poked Kyomu's chest, near his heart. "The heart of a true hero. So I, All Might, along with the rest of the UA staff, welcome you, young Shinka Kyomu, into your hero academia."

There was a long pause between the two of them as Kyomu drank in the words spoken by All might. Inside, the muscular hero beamed at his speech, practically bursting with pride at the words he had spoken. He was sure to get that smile out of the young man now.

"... You practice that speech a lot on the way here?" All of All Might's efforts amounted to the dry remark from Kyomu. It caused his entire body to slump as he let out an explosive sigh.

"You really are a special lad," he mumbled, barely picking himself up as he turned towards the doorway. "Anyways, all the details you need to know are in the letter. Swing by the school next week to pick up your uniform. And before you ask, don't worry!" He held a thumbs-up towards Kyomu. "I took the liberty of paying for it myself, given your circumstances. No need to thank me!"

It was first look of appreciation given to All Might by the boy since arriving. "You did? Thanks," he said with an air of sincerity and gratefulness he'd been waiting to hear. He smiled wider.

"Did I not just say no thanks were needed!? Regardless, your thanks is accepted! Ha-hah!"

There was the rumbling of footfalls not too far away following his heroic laugh, and the voices that came after made All Might's blood run colder than most villains could ever hope to achieve.

"Is that All Might!?"

"Yeah, it sounded like All Might!"

"ALL MIGHT!? WHERE!?"

"Yeah, ah boy oh yeah All Might lemme tell ya guys 'bout All Might see All Might..."

They had heard him. Even worse, he felt blood beginning to pool in his mouth. His time was running short. "Gotta go! See you in school!"

He tore off at blinding speeds, a mob of frenzied children following close behind him. Kyomu shook his head at the sight, letting a small chuckle out as he closed the door behind him. Thankfully, it didn't squeak. All Might did a decent job.

Sitting down on the bed, Kyomu glanced over at the acceptance letter. The piece of paper he'd been waiting so long for. The key to the next step of achieving his dream.

He'd be going to UA. And with any luck, Eikyo was one of the people that was accepted. And maybe Midoriya, too. He seemed like a nice enough person.

"Cool."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N- Ah boy, it's one of those long and drawn-out segments everybody's gonna skip over.**

 **So there's a... I'll call it a unique problem when writing something in this kind of setting. And no, I don't mean writing in a everybody-important-has-a-superpower setting or some other setting that has main characters spitting soul swords out of their elbows or something like that.**

 **I mean writing in a Japanese setting.**

 **Problem is that I write in English, and Japan has this really weird system around it's language. Honorifics and the backwards formal naming thing and all that (I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying that that it's an important cultural difference between the two languages).**

 **So how do you cope with this while writing it in English? A lotta people do it differently. Some people write normally but they put some Japanese language-exclusive things in there like the honorifics to stay true to the setting. Other people completely re-translate it into a more natural-sounding English dialogue in order to appeal to the language being written in, which, in the provided example, is English. These are both fine as long as the wording convention throughout the entire work is consistent. It's a thin line either way.**

 **Then there are those people that'll mix seemingly random Japanese words in their primarily English works for absolutely no discernible reason.**

 **My point here is that I kind of accidentally deviated from that rule I just said of sticking to a consistent style throughout the work in that I used an English "Mrs." in one chapter and some "sans" honorifics in another. This was mainly due to the fact I wrote those two chapters _months_ before I decided to go full-on forwards with the story and straight-up forgot about what kind of wording convention I was going to use throughout the story. So big whoops on my part.**

 **So to be clear, I'm going be doing away with the honorifics in lieu of English titles such as "mr" or "mrs" an' all that jazz. So no "sans" or "chans" or anything like that, primarily because A) I'm a complete novice when it comes to Japanese honorifics and B) it's easier on me. The formal naming convention will still be in place.**

 **It may be the smallest detail in the world, but the fact I did this was just annoying me. So I'm gonna go back and fix that whenever I feel like it. Probably after I post this. Or tomorrow.**

 **Things were easier when I didn't write in a Japanese setting. Geez...**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Arc 2- Blackened hero**

 **Episode 7- The first day- part 1**

* * *

So here he was. The best hero school in all of Japan; one that he had to jump through more hoops than necessary in order to get here. So many hoops, in fact, that sometimes Kyomu found himself questioning why he didn't just apply to a different hero school. But this was one that produced the best heroes, All Might of all people included, so the appeal was great.

And there was only one thing on Kyomu's mind as he stood outside the gates leading into possibly the largest high school he had ever seen in his entire life, ready to commit to his first day of hero studies. One question that had him so mystified that it prevented him from stepping forwards into those grand halls.

"Why's the building kind of shaped like an English letter 'H'?" he wondered to himself. "It's a bit... on the nose, isn't it?"

There had to be a law against designing a educational facility so extravagantly... but then again, maybe it just looked like that on coincidence. Or maybe the architect thought it would be funny. Maybe he would ask one of the teachers one day if he ever felt like it.

These thoughts were interrupted when Kyomu was put into a headlock.

"Hey, buddy!" He felt knuckles grinding onto his head following the happy voice sounding off. "Dude, you actually made it! Awesome!"

Kyomu would have punched the assailant in the face if he didn't recognize the voice. He fought his way out of the headlock, stepping back to see a balded teen smiling back and waving at him. Kyomu's guard was lowered instantly.

"Eikyo. Hey." A small smile grew on Kyomu's face when he saw his friend from the exam. The smile only grew when he saw the UA uniform he was wearing, along with the one he himself had on. "You made it into UA. I'm happy."

"Sen."

Kyomu blinked. "Sorry?"

"Sen. You can use my first name, dude. I don't care." He clasped his hands behind his back, still smiling widely at Kyomu, and tilted his head. "Sooo... it's cool if I just call you Kyomu then, right?"

If he was being completely honest, Kyomu was just pleasantly surprised that Sen had remembered his first name after having only said it once weeks ago. But nevertheless, he gave his friend a nod. "Sure," he said, "that's fine. Sen."

"Cool. C'mon." Sen gestured for Kyomu, who walked to his side as the two made their way towards the school. "So what class you get into?" he asked.

The black-haired teen looked down at his printed schedule. "1-A," he answered. "You?"

"Same," he said. "That's pretty neat, huh? We get to become heroes together."

The two entered the school. There were a few students milling about, but the two of them had arrived so early that not many had even arrived at the school yet. So they'd taken their time getting to the class, looking around and pointing out any weird physical Quirks they saw on any of the few students they saw while roaming.

Eventually, though, they had made it to their class. It was not without effort, though, as Sen had gotten lost multiple times due to the surprisingly complex layout of the school. Kyomu, having taken a single glance at a map posted on the wall near the school's main entrance, had to be the one to successfully guide them to the classroom. Fortunately, they had made it. And it was still unbearably early.

Sen couldn't take his eyes off the classroom doors.

"Is it me, or are the doors big?" he asked.

The doors reached up to the ceiling. A ceiling so high that even if Sen stood on top of Kyomu's shoulders, he still didn't think he'd be able to reach. And Kyomu was fairly tall for his age.

"Maybe it's for students with weird growth Quirks or something like that," Kyomu guessed. "Or the architect was crazy. I'm leaning towards the latter."

Sen chuckled. "I'm pretty sure they make architects take psyche tests, Kyomu."

"They don't. I checked."

The bald teen paled. "... Let's head in, huh?" He grasped the extremely large door and opened it. The two stepped in.

The interior of the room was as typical as a classroom could be.

There were desks for students, a teacher's desk, and a chalkboard. Some window's, too, for flavor. And the room itself was so clean that it was almost nauseating for Kyomu to look at. It seemed that most of the students were here already, too- he counted seventeen- no, eighteen. One was invisible if the floating clothes said anything. He and Sen made twenty. And from the amount of desks there were and with what All Might had said, they were waiting for two more.

The two teens moved over to their assigned seats near the front of the class, which, conveniently, were right next to each other. Not many of the other students looked their way, as they were busy chatting among themselves, though there were a few that glanced in their direction. Kyomu noted that most of the students had a very unique look about them. Some looked like completely normal humans. Others had less human features due to their Quirks.

There was even a pink one. Fancy that.

"This is a pretty weird crowd, huh, Sen?" Kyomu asked as the two sat down. "Everybody looks so unique."

"Huh? Really?" Sen looked back at their classmates. "If you think this is diverse, then you should really come down to my apartment complex one of these days. 'Cause this is, like, a Tuesday in comparison. And not even a holiday Tuesday, either. I'm talkin' standard-ass Tuesday."

"Standard Tuesday..." Kyomu whispered to himself. He shook his head and faced Sen. "There's a lot of people where I'm from, too, they just... don't have the kinds of physical Quirks some of these guys have. Most of 'em, at least."

"Pfft. Sounds boring." Sen tilted his head towards one of the students. "What, you don't know anybody that has a bird head?"

Kyomu looked past his shoulders. There was, indeed, a male student whose head was that of a black falcon. "Nothing that extreme," he said. "I don't go out much."

"I can tell." Sen looked back at Kyomu. "Well, these are the people we're going to be spending the next three years of school with," he said. "So I guess we should... socialize with them? Or something?"

"That seems appropriate." Kyomu looked to the crowd of students. He suddenly started feeling very apprehensive. "I think you should initiate the dialogue."

Sen shook his head. "Nah, man. That's okay. You can start with someone."

The two sent nervous glances between themselves. It was evident that neither wanted to be the one to start talking with any of them.

A closed fist was held out to Kyomu, along with an expectant look from Sen. With a sigh upon realizing the meaning, Kyomu held a closed fist of his own. The three closed fists were pumped into the air three times, and on the final pump the two revealed their hands.

Kyomu stuck with rock. Sen chose paper.

One teen screamed internally in victory while the other screamed in terror.

 _"Okay. Alright. Fine. I can do this."_ Kyomu looked towards the students. _"I mean, how hard can this be? If I find the most calm-looking one... yeah, that would be ideal, right? That would be a great gateway to start conversing with our peers. But which one?"_

It's not that he didn't _want_ to establish a good relationship with his peers. It was the opposite, in fact. The problem lied in the fact that he had never, ever established a good relationship with any of his peers in any other school in his life besides his brother long ago. Always for the same reason that he had always been better than the other students. Freakishly better, some had said.

His expectations here, however, were raised. He had no intentions of holding himself back just for their sake. But he hoped that them being in high school now would come with a degree of maturity not found in the other schools. Not only that, but this was the UA hero course. Which means all of the students here had to be exceptional even among normal people. So his hope was that maybe they would actually see him as normal. Like Sen did.

He didn't want to have that hope shattered by talking with somebody. So he was being very selective with who to start with.

 _"Maybe the one with the weird elbows? Or the... I want to say that girl is a frog...?"_ He had to blink at that sight. _"Huh. How about those two over there?"_

There were two students in a shouting match. A tall, dark-haired one with glasses who specifically was shouting at a blonde teen while making weird, slightly amusing chopping motions with his hand. The strange part was that Kyomu recognized the blonde one.

And then it was with dawning horror he realized it was that Kacchan person whose friend his brother had punched back when they met Midoriya.

 _"So that's a definite nope."_ Kyomu looked to his left. There was another male student whose hair was more yellow than blonde. And for whatever reason, there was a black lightning bolt decal running through it. _"He seems mellow. I choose him!"_

"Hey, I'm Shinka Kyomu," he introduced, grabbing the student's attention. "I, uh, just arrived at this class and don't know anybody besides my friend here-"

"Yo," Sen waved.

"- And was hoping to get to know some of my classmates." Kyomu took a deep breath. Looking good so far. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Ah, I getcha. Gettin' to know your fellow classmates, huh? I can dig it." The student smiled an pointed a thumb at himself. "Name's Kaminari Denki. Nice to meet you."

The light of hope inside of Kyomu grew ever brighter due to him successfully initiating a normal conversation.

"I'm Eikyo Sen," his bald friend introduced. "You know anybody else in this class? We're kind of struggling to meet new people."

Kaminari gave a remorseful nod. "Oh, I hear you," he said. "No, I don't think anybody knows anybody here." He looked to the side. "I mean, I guess there might be a couple friends, and everybody knows the names of the two that got in on the recommends, but other than that-"

"They're in this class?" Kyomu asked, suddenly very interested.

"You don't know?" The blonde pointed towards two students. "Yeah, they're over there."

Kyomu followed his gaze at the two students. One was a girl that seemed impossibly voluptuous for being the same age as him, but otherwise looked normal. The other was a boy whose hair was differently colored on each side, one being white while the other was red. He was even heterochromatic, too, with one eye being gray while the other was a light-blue. The left one in particular had a nasty burn mark going over it, along with the skin around it.

"So those two're the ones that are so good they got in without having to take the practical, huh?" Sen mused. "They any good Quirk-wise?"

"Well..." Kaminari scratched the top of his head. "I dunno about the girl, but the guy's the son of the number two hero, Endeavor. So I guess he might have a strong fire Quirk or something along those lines."

The number two hero. Kyomu had seen him on a store-front TV displaying news when walking through a shopping district one time. He had a fire Quirk if he remembered correctly. And a stupid-looking fire beard to boot.

Kyomu nodded. "I see." His eyes narrowed at the two. Then he closed his eyes fully and shrugged. "Eh. Guess we'll get to know them eventually."

"We could always, you know, go and talk to them," Sen reminded. "Just saying."

"Why rush things?"

The large doors leading into classroom opened. He saw the dark-haired, chopping student from earlier back up along with the last two student arrivals- one of which, Kyomu had noted, was in fact Midoriya- as well as... some sort of human being. He didn't have a uniform, and seemed to be an adult, so Kyomu assumed that he was their teacher. And there wasn't expressly anything wrong with him, either. Except those eyes. Those eyes looked more tired than humanly possible.

He had a yellow sleeping bag, too.

The tired man who looked like he'd rather be sleeping said some words to the new arrivals before he turned towards the rest of the class. He then dug into his yellow sleeping bag and pulled out a gym outfit.

It was styled a little too much like All Might's colors for Kyomu's comfort. At least the big UA logo on the front put it off a bit.

"I know this is sudden, but put these on," the man instructed. The way it sounded like he was forcing those words out through sheer force of will alone, and Kyomu had felt an ounce of pity for the man right there.

"'Ey," Sen whispered, poking Kyomu's shoulder. "Is that our teach?"

"Looks like it," Kyomu whispered back.

"Why does he look so dead inside?"

The teen shrugged. "Dunno. Guess we'll fine out." He then glanced at the gym uniform the man held. "Hey, you think we'll get to keep those afterwards?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I'm all for free clothes, now come on."

* * *

"Quirk assessment test!?"

These three words were shouted by the entire class, barring Kyomu, once they had put on the gym clothes and met the supposed teacher at the back of the school. Kyomu, instead of having shouted that phrase once the teacher had explained what it was they were doing, was digging his little finger into his ear as he shot an annoyed glance at the rest of the students.

Even as the teacher continued to explain, Kyomu was forced to tune his voice out as he pulled his finger out. Was it really that surprising to them all that they had to scream in at the top of their lungs? It was so sudden, too. He didn't have any time to brace himself at all. He felt assaulted.

"Die!"

That word, followed by the sound of an explosion, drew Kyomu's attention. The blonde, angry one had just thrown a softball. He'd thrown it at the same time an explosion came out of his palm, extending the ball's flight path.

"What just happened?" Kyomu asked, turning towards Sen. He turned towards Kyomu, the look of surprise on his face melting into disbelief.

"What do you- Kyomu, did you seriously just miss all of that?" he hissed at his friend, an incredulous look on his face.

Kyomu rolled his eyes. "I was busy recovering from the classes screaming attack," he grumbled. "Why did that guy's hand explode?"

"It's his Quirk," Sen explained. "We're doing a bunch of physical tests using our Quirks."

He blinked. He was fairly certain Quirk usage in school was prohibited. "Isn't that a little illegal?" he asked.

Sen shrugged. "Not here, apparently. It's the hero course. Heroes use Quirks." He pointed towards the trail of smoke the ball had left. "So we're using Quirks."

"Oh." Kyomu's eyes widened. That was an interesting.

"And whoever scores the lowest in these assessment tests is getting booted from the class."

"Oh!"

"If you two are done?" Both teens' head snapped towards the tired and annoyed voice. The teacher was staring right at them. "You need to pay more attention, Shinka Kyomu," he gruffly stated. "The world of hero work isn't going to wait around while you try and figure things out because you were too busy daydreaming. What was your plan if I was going to ask you how far Bakugo's ball went and you were too busy talking to notice when I showed the rest of the class?"

Being called out on for a mistake. That was something new for Kyomu personally, though he'd seen it happen to plenty other students. He should have been embarrassed. But really, it made him a bit happy. Like he was being treated normally.

But he couldn't think about that right now. The teacher had just asked him a question. The same teacher who Sen had said would kick out a student for scoring too low in the assessment. So his immediate focus was on answering.

"My plan would be to look at the smoke trail and give you a rough estimate," he said. His eyes than went up to the fading trail, traced it to the end, and then faced the teacher once more after he did some mental estimations. "I'd say that it went, I dunno, seven-hundred meters or something like that," he finished.

Silently, the teacher showed Kyomu his phone. he was only five meters off, it seemed. "Good guess. If you guessed ten meters higher or lower, I would have dropped you right then and there."

Kyomu felt a chill go through him. Somehow, he felt that the teacher was serious when he said that.

"But try to pay more attention, Shinka. Even the slightest bits of information can make all the difference in hero work."

The black-haired teen felt his fists tighten at his sides, both from the stress of having narrowly dodged expulsion and from the fact he heard whispers about him from behind his back from the other students. He'd take the teacher's words to heart, if only so something like that didn't happen again. He didn't need to jeopardize his dream over doing something stupid like that.

"Alright," the teacher called out. "Let's start off with the first test."

* * *

"So we gotta run, huh?" Kyomu muttered.

In front of the class was a fifty meter stretch of white racing lines with a camera at the end. A camera with arms, which while off-putting, added a sense of personality to the camera that Kyomu came to appreciate for a solid two seconds.

"You ever run before?" Sen asked, who stood right next to Kyomu at the starting line. The students were to be racing in pairs as the time it took for them to reach one end of the line to the other was recorded by the camera that Kyomu could have sworn swiveled slightly to stare at them.

"Oh, yeah. I run all the time," Kyomu said.

"On your mark!" shouted the camera placed at the end of the racing strip. This earned a cursory glance from Kyomu, who began to suspect that UA were maybe a little too invested into robotics if this camera and the exam robots had anything to say.

A competitive look spread across Sen's face. "Oh, yeah?" He took a runner's starting position. "Bet you can't beat me."

"Get set...!"

Kyomu said nothing in response, instead maintaining a casual pose with his hands in his pockets. This earned glares from all of the students, including Sen, but this was ignored by Kyomu who stared off to the finishing line drawn in the dirt.

 _"Well, if we're allowed to use our Quirks..."_ he thought as he began to flex his hand. _"Sorry, Sen. I win."_

"Go!" screamed the camera.

Sen had taken off into a dead sprint towards the finish line. Kyomu had snapped his finger to open a portal to Void, and stepped in. He arrived out of a second portal located at the finish line shortly after.

"Zero-point-two seconds," intoned the camera.

Kyomu stared at the camera. It seemed to stare back. A silent and mutual understanding was reached for the two via the shared look, and their attention was set towards Sen as he crossed the finish line.

"Five seconds."

While impressive in of itself, everybody was more focused on Kyomu.

"Woah! He didn't even take a second to get to the end of the finish line!" marveled a student who was so short that, if it weren't for his weird, dark-purple and spherical... things on his head in place of hair, barely came up to Kyomu's knees. Other students around him began to echo his words of praise. A few, namely the two recommendation students and the hawk-headed one, stared carefully at Kyomu's hands.

Kyomu saw Midoriya focus on the ground and incoherently mutter to himself rapidly.

Bakugo glared.

"Dude..." Sen panted as he hunched over to catch his breath. "Bro... your Quirk cheats. Great job, though."

"Thanks," Kyomu muttered as he walked back towards the students. He passed the teacher along the way, who gave him a passing glance before going back to his phone.

"Good application," he mumbled before facing the rest of the class. "Okay, next."

* * *

Kyomu stared down at the device clamped in his hand. According to the teacher, it was a device meant to measure the grip strength of whoever squeezed down at the handle, causing a number to appear at the top of the screen.

Grip strength was apparently very important in the hero world.

 _"Nine-hundred and ninety-nine,"_ he mentally read upon seeing the number on the device. _"I... seemed to have maxed it out."_

"Five-hundred and forty kilograms?" Kyomu looked up. The student with the strange, spherical elbows was complimenting a large student who possessed six, very muscular arms that were webbed together. "What are you, a gorilla?" the elbow student jokingly replied upon seeing the six-armed student's score.

Kyomu looked down at his own grip meter. His face fell slightly upon seeing his normal, if a bit thin, arms. _"I hope nobody sees this score but the teacher,"_ he thought.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kyomu saw sparks of orange power. What proceeded then was the sound of crunching metal. He turned his head, his eyes widening when he saw Sen staring down at his hand, and crushed grip meter held within.

He chuckled nervously. "I, uh... think I put too much power in that one."

* * *

The standing long jump came afterwards, and with that came the return of the speaking camera with which Kyomu had yet to decipher if it did or did not have a mind of its own or was just programmed to speak.

And he got the honor to be observed by it once more.

"So I just need to jump as far as possible?" he muttered to himself. The camera was placed at the end of a rectangular placement of sand. His assumption was that the students would be scored based on how far they could jump. "Okay."

"Yo, Kyomu!" Sen called from the crowd of students. "Are you actually just gonna jump, or are you gonna cheese this one with your Quirk, too?"

"Of course I'll cheese it. Why on earth wouldn't I cheese it?" Shaking his head, Kyomu looked towards the sand rectangle, looked up and behind him, and then nodded confidently to himself.

He rose both hands, snapping each three times for a grand total of six times. At the same time, six black portals opened: the first on the ground directly under him, the second high in the air, the third directly below the second near the ground, the fourth at the starting end of the rectangle positioned at a slanted angle, the fifth set far past the end of the rectangle, and the final sixth appearing next to the crowd of students. The student with pink skin yelped and stepped back, as it had appeared directly next to her.

"And then we let gravity do the rest," Kyomu said as he stepped forwards and fell through the first portal.

His body disappeared, only to reappear falling out of the second portal, and which point he dropped into the third. He came flying out of the fourth and, due to the angle it was placed, was seen sailing clear over the rectangular patch of sand as the camera followed his body until it fell through the fifth portal he'd set up at the landing point far past the other end of the rectangle. Finally, he popped up through the sixth portal and snapped his fingers once more, causing all six portals to disappear as he landed feet-first on the ground.

 _"Wow. Can't believe that worked."_ Kyomu shook off a slight amount of dust from his shoulder as he looked out towards the sand rectangle. _"That should be good enough, at least."_

"You're such a show-off with that thing," Sen complained. "Geez. I shouldn't have baited you like that."

"Ah, it's not that impressive." He pointed towards the jumping field, where Bakugo was using his explosions to propel himself across the field. "See, look at that guy. He's practically flying with his Quirk."

Sen shrugged. "I guess," he said. "I, uh... don't think I'll be able to get as good as score as you guys here with my Quirk, though."

"Don't worry, Sen. I'm sure you won't do so terribly as to be the one to get kicked out."

"... What's that supposed to mean?"

* * *

When the side-to-side jumping had come up, Kyomu could barely focus due to one of the students using their Quirk in a very... creative way in order to get a great score.

It was the short one from earlier. The one with the ball-like hair. He'd essentially stacked his hair into two towers and was rapidly being bounced between the two towers. It was such a mystifying display that Kyomu could barely keep his eyes off of him.

He still managed to beat the short student by making two portals at each end of the jumping area to just hop on his feet back and forth, but still. It was an impressive display nonetheless.

* * *

The time for the ball thrown Bakugo had demonstrated earlier had come. And of course, Kyomu had been chosen to be first to throw the ball.

He stepped in the small throwing circle, the other students and teacher looking at him expectantly. _"That Bakugo guy... thought Midoriya said his name was Kacchan? Eh, whatever, must be a nickname or something."_ He shook his head. _"Ah, focus. We just went over this."_

Kyomu looked down at the ball in his hand. _"It looks like there's a sensor on this thing,"_ he observed. _"It must be connected to the teacher's phone to tell how far the ball goes when thrown. And Bakugo managed seven-hundred meters with his exploding Quirk."_ He raised up the hand not holding the ball. _"Alright, if all I have to do is get the ball far..."_

He snapped his fingers, opening a black portal facing the ground right next to him. The teacher and students observed him very carefully. Midoriya especially looked very closely, and his quieted ramblings began once more. Kyomu granted the sight a single blink of confusion before he held the ball up above the portal and prepared to drop it.

And with the snap of his fingers, he closed the portal right before he dropped the ball with a shake of his head.

 _"This won't work,"_ he realized. _"If I send the ball to Void, the sensor on it will be destroyed from the cold. Even if it isn't, I doubt the teacher's phone will receive a signal from another dimension. I'll have to throw it."_ Disappointing, but he doubted the teacher would approve of him destroying the ball. And he was on thin ice with him as it was.

So, he'd reared his body back in the best throwing position he could. And then he'd thrown the ball. It went fairly far- he'd thrown it so hard that all the dirt in front of him had been kicked up, and even some of the students had widened their eyes in surprise at the force of the throw. Even the one with the exploding hands looked on in shock.

The ball finally landed, and with slightly raised eyebrows, the teacher showed the class the distance with his phone. He'd managed to throw the ball five-hundred meters.

"What the- five-hundred!?" one of his classmates, one with red hair, shouted. "With just a normal throw!?"

"He didn't even use his Quirk..." muttered Kaminari. "Wait, unless that black thing he made had something to do with it?"

Kyomu stepped out from the throwing ring, the other students debating among themselves on how it was he had thrown the ball so far. The teacher, on the other hand, didn't look fazed in the slightest. More annoyed, really. "Why didn't you use your Quirk?" he asked.

The black-haired teen shrugged. "Ball would have been destroyed."

The darkly-dressed teacher nodded in acceptance, and gestured for him to join his classmates. Kyomu did so, and was instantly faced with Sen jumping in front of him excitedly.

"Dude, that was insane!" he exclaimed. "How'd you throw that ball so far with just your arm!?"

"I... have a really good pitching arm?" Kyomu chuckled, slightly nervous from the looks he was getting from the class. "It wasn't that impressive."

The disbelieving looks from his classmates said otherwise, though they grew disinterested at his plain response.

"Don't sell yourself short, man," Sen said. He reached up and caught the next ball the teacher had thrown at him. "That's my job. 'Cause I'm gonna beat your throwing score by double."

"Oh, yeah?" Kyomu crossed his arms as Sen made his way to the throwing ring. "Prove it."

Sen smirked, stepping inside of the ring as everybody watched. Yet, instead of throwing it, Sen placed the ball gently onto the ground.

He then balled up his right fist and punched his open left hand.

"Twenty should do it." And indeed, Sen had proceeded to land twenty full-force punches into his own arm. Orange power arced off of the hand being punched, and each punch delivered seemed to increase the intensity of the orange sparks flowing over his hand. Once the twentieth one landed, the orange energy traveled up his arm and transferred from his left hand to the right one.

"Okay." Sen bent down and picked the ball up. "Time to one-up Kyomu."

He threw the ball with such force that it caused the more of a disturbance to a ground than Bakugo's explosion had. The ball sailed far, and after what seemed like a great amount of time finally fell to the ground. The teacher almost immediately looked at the phone and turned it towards the rest of the class.

One-thousand and ten meters.

"Told ya." Sen had walked to his spot next to Kyomu and patted him on the back. "Bet you couldn't throw that far even if you tried, huh, Kyomu?"

Kyomu responded by scoffing and rolling his eyes, though a small smirk did spread across his face. He actually managed to beat his score. Someone beat _him_. It made him a bit excited. Nobody had ever done that before.

The rest of the students had went through the motion of throwing the ball. Most, like Kyomu, didn't have a Quirk suited for the specific task, and had to resort to plainly throwing the ball normally. None of them had managed to get a score higher than his through this method, however. It was something that made him regret not holding back more on the throw.

Others, like Sen, actually did manage to use their Quirk on the ball. He noted that the female student who got in on the recommendations had used her Quirk to have a cannon- literally a canon- appear from her skin. She had then used the cannon to fire the ball.

Another female student had managed to make her ball float into space and got an infinity score. Kyomu was fairly confident nobody was going to be able to top that one.

And finally, it was Midoriya's turn. For some reason, the tall student with glasses and the one who got the infinity score seemed nervous about him throwing the ball, as did Midoriya himself. The teacher had actually stopped him from throwing the ball, his eyes glowing red, while scolding Midoriya. Eventually he had been let go, though, and Midoriya had thrown the ball.

It was the first time Kyomu had actually seen the short teen's Quirk. He saw his finger start to spark with red lines of power that grew along his index finger as he reared back.

He threw the ball at an impressive distance.

He also managed to break the finger he'd used in the process.

"Huh?" Kyomu tilted his head. "He broke his finger?"

He squinted to get a better look at the finger. It was crooked and bending in every single place except in the actual places a finger should bend. It was also swollen and red. Kyomu mentally nodded. It was, in fact, broken.

"Looks like he has a super strength Quirk or something. Maybe some physical enhancement ability," Sen guessed in what was probably the most articulate sentence Kyomu had ever heard him say. "But... it looks like he can't handle it. What's up with that?"

The students around them began muttering similar observations of their own, some even cringing away at the broken finger Midoriya displayed. All except for one, who instead of quietly muttering to himself began to angrily froth right next to Kyomu.

"DEKU!" The frothing student, who had been Bakugo, had torn off towards Midoriya while shoving Kyomu to the side. He started shouting and screaming at the small teen. There was even a confusing moment where Kyomu had though the blonde was actually intent on using his Quirk on Midoriya, and could only watch mystified as he approached him.

And then the teacher unwrapped the off-gray scarves wrapped around his neck and threw them at Bakugo while flashing that red-eye Quirk of his. It was made extremely evident that the teacher was very adept at scarf usage, as he'd actually managed to ensnare the student with those scarves.

Their teacher was such a strange person to Kyomu's eyes.

* * *

After the screaming incident with Bakugo (at which point he was severely scolded at by the teacher), the assessment test continued. Midoriya had decided to stand as far away from Bakugo as possible, and at multiple points he had found Kyomu had found the small teen standing right behind him. Like a shield of some sort.

It didn't stop Bakugo from constantly glaring at them. Whether it was at Kyomu or Midoriya, or both even, the black-haired teen had no clue. Nor cared, for that matter. Because the next test was up.

And the test afterwards.

And the one after that.

To be completely honest, they were normal physical tests that he or barely anybody else were able to use their Quirks, like toe-touches and pull-ups. Tests that he was sure he did too well in. Consequences of him telling himself not to hold back just to avoid standing out.

But then again, most of the other students were, strangely enough, in near-top physical shape. Or maybe it wasn't too strange to consider that they'd actually trained their bodies to be heroes. Either way, nobody had been slacking on their performance in the tests, and some like the one girl with the gravity Quirk got amazing scores with their Quirks. He was confident he would average out somewhere in the middle.

"Okay, I'll quickly tell you the results." The teacher had gathered all the students back together after the tests were done into a group and had situated them to stand in front him. "The total is simply the marks you got from each test," he explained. "It's a waste of time to explain verbally, so I'll show you the results all at once. The person with the lowest score will be expelled."

Kyomu felt an elbow rib into his side. "How do you think you did?" Sen whispered to him as the teacher finished explaining.

He shrugged. "Average, I suppose."

"With the fancy moves you were pulling with your Quirk?" Sen waved a hand. "No way, man. I bet you'll make at least the top three at least."

A nervous chuckle escaped Kyomu. "Nah, I don't... I didn't do that good."

The teacher pressed a button on his phone. What followed next was for a large, holographic scoreboard to be projected out from the top of the phone for all of the students to see their scores.

At the very top, holding the number one spot, read the name Shinka Kyomu.

 _"Oh, come on!"_

Kyomu's shoulders fell right as Sen slung an arm around them. "Alright man, number one!" he congratulated. "And hey, look! I got number eight! Not too shabby, eh?"

"Yeah, that's, uh..." Kyomu let out a dejected sigh while looking out at the other students. "That's real great, Sen."

A fair number of them were staring at him.

He wanted to open an portal and hop into Void right then and there.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N- We're stretching this out into three parts because this chapter became way too long, so I cut it in half. On the bright side, I got the next chapter almost completely done, which means it'll be released whenever I feel like it.**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 8- The first day- part 2**

* * *

Kyomu's gym locker was shut so quietly that he almost didn't register it closing. The student himself had sighed deeply, pocketing his hands as he walked out of the gym room and towards his class homeroom.

He'd been the first person to leave the group of students after the practical exam was over, mainly because while everybody else had taken their time walking back to change into their normal uniforms, he'd sped-walked. And then he'd changed as fast and as quietly as possible so he could get to the homeroom as quick as possible.

He didn't think he could handle the scrutiny.

 _"Well, at least the the teacher lied about the whole 'expelling the person who comes in last' thing. So good for Midoriya."_ He could still remember the deep, depressed look of resignation that had come over the small teen's face when he had seen the scoreboard and his name at the bottom. And then the look of absolute relief when the teacher had announced his ruse. _"Still,"_ he thought as he grabbed the handle to the homeroom door, _"it doesn't matter how strong his Quirk makes him. Something like that is complete garbage unless he figures out how to make it so he doesn't break bones every single time he uses it."_

It was quite literally a crippling power that Midoriya had. He'd caught murmurs from the tall, dark haired student with the engine-leg Quirk and the one with the gravity Quirk how he'd broken his entire arm taking out the zero-pointer robot in the practical exam. He'd had to go to the nurse's office after he broke his finger in the assessment. What kind of Quirk was that self-destructive, anyways? And he seemed so mild-mannered, too... it just didn't fit him.

The homeroom was empty. Everybody else was still changing. He went to go sit down at his desk, slinging his feet over the top of it while interlacing his finger behind his head in a resting position. He hadn't even been able to close his eyes to get a moment's respite before the door opened.

His head turned. _"Oh, great,"_ he thought as the one and only student at the door entered. _"The blonde one who gets so angry he'd attack a student right in front of a teacher. How'd someone like that get into the hero course, anyway?"_

Part of Kyomu had hoped that Bakugo would just ignore him and go to his own desk. He did, in fact, go to his desk, though unfortunately he seemed to keep glaring at Kyomu even as he sat down. There was a tense silence between the two that Kyomu tried his best to ignore until the blonde began speaking words.

"I know you from somewhere?" he asked in a tone that lacked even a shred of tact.

"Mm." Kyomu's head swiveled towards Bakugo's. "We met at a stream ten years ago," he answered. "My brother punched your friend in the face."

Bakugo nodded. "Right. Thought so," he huffed. "So what, you make it through the exams but your brother flunked out? 'Cause I don't see him anywhere."

"He never applied for the hero course," Kyomu evasively replied. "There something you want, Bakugo? You don't peg me as the type to strike up a conversation. Even if I am a peer." He unlaced his hand, set his feet down, and leaned over his desk towards Bakugo. "Unless, of course, you want some quality advice from me?"

"Don't flatter yourself," he scoffed, turning around. "Just 'cause you got the top score in the assessment doesn't make you all that."

"I'm glad someone thinks so," Kyomu sighed, falling back into his seat. He got that far before the homeroom door opened once more and more students began flooding through along with the accompanying chatter they were having among themselves.

Kyomu had braced himself for a lot of things. Cold stares and mutterings about him behind his back. Things he'd had to deal with in all his other schools that he'd ignored over the years because he'd always been so _different_ from everybody else. So better.

He half expected the pairs of hands slamming slamming down on his desk. He fully expected some half-hearted insults and snide remarks, though those never came. What he didn't expect, and what did come, was the amount of ecstatic and smiling faces that closed in on his.

Honestly, it made him so nervous that he almost would have preferred what he had expected to happen.

"Hey, here you are!" It was the bright-blonde student he and Sen had talked to earlier. Kaminari, who had a large grin plastered onto his face. "Dude, where've you been? You've been the talk of half the class since the assessment!"

"Is that so?" Kyomu mumbled, a sinking feeling appearing in his chest.

"Yeah! Man, you were so cool!" exclaimed a student who had leaned themselves over the desk along with Kaminari. It was the red-haired one, who, upon Kyomu closely looking at him, had oddly-sharpened teeth. "We were all super impressed by your performance! How were you not one of the ones that got in on recommendations? You killed it out there!"

"I-I-I..." Kyomu stammered, scooting further away from the two. "I didn't... I'm sorry, what was your name?"

The red head's read eyes widened. "Huh? Oh. It's Kirishima," he answered. "You alright? You look kinda... off."

"Well, I just thought..." Kyomu's blue eyes began blinking rapidly as he scratched the back of his head. "I just thought... you'd be kinda mad at me for, well... doing so good and getting the top score..." he mumbled quietly.

"What? No way!" Kaminari shook his head. "Why would you think that?"

Kyomu scanned both pairs of eyes staring at him. And to his surprise, they looked... genuine. Just like the smiles they were giving him, those beaming eyes were brimming with positivity. When he looked past their shoulders, he saw students that weren't conversing with others were sending him waves and smiles. A muscled student eating sugar from a small pack was grinning at him and giving him a wave, a shy-looking student with strange, rock-like skin was peeking out at him from the corner and was giving him a small wave, and even the quiet one with the hawk head was silently giving him a thumbs-up.

 _"They're... they're actually congratulating me. They're not angry in the slightest."_ Something began to grow across his face. When he slowly touched a hand to it, he was shocked to find that it was a smile. _"They're not like the others. They're treating me like a normal person. Like I'm an equal."_

It was the one thing he'd hoped for the most coming to this school. That there would be a change and that his peers would accept him.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing," he said upon seeing Kaminari still staring at him. "You guys did good too, you know. Everybody did. I'm just..." he let out a small laugh. "I'm just a guy that can throw a ball really far."

"And do an insane amount of chin-ups," a new voice chimed in. Kyomu turned to his left and was almost spooked off his seat by the yellow irises surrounded by pools of black instead of normal, white sclera. The eyes of the girl with the pink skin and hair. "Hey! I'm Ashido Mina! Nice to meetcha!"

Her smile and personality were almost as bubbly as her skin was pink.

"Shinka Kyomu," he introduced. "You're the, uh, the slippery one. The one who made all that suds stuff and slid around during the assessment, right?"

She grinned widely at him. "It was acid, actually."

"Oh, that's- wow. Okay." Kyomu coughed into his fist. "That's actually way scarier than soap, forgive me."

The small group had continued talking, much like most of the rest of the class as more students began funneling into the classroom. They were eventually joined by Sen, who had come in with the second to last group of students.

The last one to arrive had been Midoriya, who had been held up at the nurse's office. Most of the students had flooded over to him to congratulate the student once he walked in. It had left Kyomu and Sen at their own desks. Kyomu was left feeling very positive. Sen was left staring at Kyomu oddly, as if sensing the lightened mood of the person right next to him.

"You're awfully chipper," Sen noted. "Somethin' happen or are you just that happy about yourself for doing so well in the assessment?"

Kyomu turned towards Sen. "No, it's not- well, I mean I am happy I did so well, but that isn't the reason." He gestured to their classmates. "They're just so... friendly. I wasn't expecting it is all."

"Eh, I wouldn't call them all friendly." Sen pointed a thumb towards the back of the room. "Bakugo and that scarred guy aren't exactly the epitome of friendliness considering they've just been staring silently at everybody in a really creepy manner. And the bird-headed guy isn't too much better."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he's just quiet," Kyomu said. "As for the other two... yeah, I got no clue what their deal is." He shrugged. "Nor do I care. I'm honestly fine with how everything's been going so far."

"Even though the teacher totally almost dropped you during the assessment?"

Kyomu sighed. "You're not gonna let that one go, are you?"

"Heh. Nah."

"Figures..."

* * *

School afterwards was just what the word implied: school. Normal school at that with none of the high-octane shenanigans seen earlier in the morning. Normal lunch, normal classes like math and language arts, even normal-acting teachers. Which was strange, considering they were all professional heroes. Even that screaming one from the exams, Present Mic. Kyomu hadn't seen a shred of the over-enthusiastic and yelling hero from those exams. Just a normal teacher.

It was so refreshing that it almost brought a tear to his eye.

But then it came time for the hero training class, and a small amount of dread began to form in him as he saw all the normal events prior to this moment slip away. He wanted to believe it was going to mainly be practical theory and application, but with how the morning had went, he seriously doubted it. In fact, he had no idea what they were going to be throwing at him here.

How was he supposed to mentally prepare when he didn't know what to prepare for?

"Ah, come on, Kyomu. It'll be fun!" These were words said by an excited Sen, who, much like the rest of the class, couldn't wait for the course to start. They were almost shaking in anticipation. "I mean, this is the class that really matters, man! Er, not to say that the other ones aren't- oh, you know what I mean!" He spread his arms wide. "Dude, hero class! We're gonna learn to be heroes here! Get pumped!"

"I'm super pumped," a dejected Kyomu sighed. "Pumped to the max. 'Bout to burst from the pressure I'm so pumped. Woo."

"... I'm not gonna lie, man. You don't sound like it."

"Oh, really!?" Kyomu hissed. "Look, I'm nervous, okay? What happened this morning and what they pulled at the exam set the precedence, okay? It set the bar. And what that bar is telling me is they could throw anything they want at us and it'll be so crazy and unexpected we won't know what hit us until it's smacking us across the face."

Sen blinked in confusion. "Yeah, that's the, um, whole point. The fear of the unknown causing an exhilarating rush and all that noise. It's exciting."

"And I am excited. I'm just not so thrilled about all the work it implies."

"You're actually really lazy, aren't you, Kyomu?"

A wry grin spread across Kyomu's lips. "Maybe a little."

"I AM..." And there was the voice. The deep and heroic voice that got most of the other students to quiet up and have them waiting expectantly at the edge of their desks at the sound of the voice. Kyomu had just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

And then, much like he expected, the number one hero himself burst through the classroom door in no less than the same hero outfit he'd visited him in. Kyomu was proud to say he hadn't broken the door this time.

"... COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" The light coming off of All Might's teeth was almost blinding in its radiance.

Half of the students were practically gushing at All Might, even as he did what Kyomu assumed was an attempted heroic march towards the teacher's podium that just ended up being an incredibly unnatural-looking and stiff march. But people still marveled at everything from him being a teacher to his costume. Midoriya alone was vibrating in his seat from the sheer sight of the man. Kyomu was almost worried he'd pass out.

"Oh, man, dude! It's All Might!" Sen started to shake Kyomu's shoulder with a hand. "The number one hero is our teacher, dude! That's nuts!"

"My door started squeaking last night," Kyomu grumbled.

"Huh?"

Kyomu shook his head. "Nothing."

All Might cleared his throat. The class was immediately rendered silent. "I teach Hero Basic Training," he began. "It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero."

 _"Seems straightforwards,"_ Kyomu thought to himself. _"It doesn't look like he brought in a syllabus like the rest of the teachers did, though. So is he going to explain what the general structure of the class is gonna be, or- and he's posing."_

And pose he did. Great, herculean poses that showed off his massive and impressive muscles for all the class to see. Midoriya's vibrations intensified.

"You'll take the most units of this subject!" he continued, his voice almost being drowned out by the sound of tortured latex stretching against his biceps. "Let's get right to it! This is what we'll do today-" he turned to the class dramatically, dug into his pocket, and held up a white rectangle with the word "battle" emblazoned on it for all to see, "- combat training!"

Midoriya's vibrations abruptly stopped. Kyomu ran a hand across his face. Everybody else only grew more excited, Bakugo especially.

 _"Day one, and he's going to be having us fight,"_ Kyomu internally sighed. _"Not one for punctuality, I suppose."_

"And to go with that are these!" All Might pointed towards the wall, where metal cases began sliding out of slots aligned across the surface. "Costumes based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started."

Kyomu blanched. _"Oh. That..."_

* * *

 **Weeks prior**

"So I gotta design my hero costume, huh?" Kyomu muttered to himself as he tapped a pen against the side of his head. "Huh. Well, I'm no artist, so... this'll probably go pretty horribly..."

A bundle of forms had come to the orphanage soon after Kyomu received his acceptance letters. Most were a worrying amount of safety waivers that Mizo had to sign, each of which had caused her face to scrunch up more and more when she had read them. Kyomu himself hadn't read any of those forms, and after seeing what faces the old woman made at them, he didn't want to know what was in them.

One form, however, was for him. His costume form.

Super heroes wore costumes. That was the basics of basics. But from what he read in the form, costumes were way more complex than just some finely-cut cloth and latex: many costumes were actually made of expensive and hard to come by materials to help the costume accommodate to the user's Quirk. In addition, there were many costumes that had special-grade support devices integrated into the suits to help better assist their wearers. Overall, incredibly expensive and apparently so dangerous that you had to have a permit to even own a super suit. And since he was a hero in training, he wouldn't even be able to take the costume off school grounds with the exception of internships and field trips.

But above all that? Since he was a student, it was free.

"Okay, guess I should get started..." Kyomu moved the paper closer to his body. "So first and foremost... ah, geez..."

The overall costume form was simple. There was a blank human shape printed in the middle for a template, and he was to sketch the basic look of the costume on the template to give those that would be building his suit an idea of what to work with. There were also lines to the side for any notes he had to make, questions at the bottom that asked for personal preferences and what recommended materials to use if he had any in mind, and a small color wheel at the bottom so he could stipulate his costume's color palette.

"Mm." He nodded down at the paper. Nothing had been written so far. "Alright. Costuuuume... yeppers."

He didn't actually have a clue about what he wanted to look like as a hero.

Explosively sighing, Kyomu allowed his body to flop onto his bed as he held the costume form up. "Ugh. This's hard," he mumbled. "I can probably cross off anything recommending any in-built support devices. My Quirk isn't exactly... well, anything-friendly except me." His pen lifted up and scratched at a couple lines. "Colors? Ah, I dunno... I like black. Quirk's black. Guess I'll make it black." More pen scratching. "Armor?" he asked himself, but then shook his head. "Nah."

That was all fine and well for the costume's details, but he still had no idea what to make the actual suit look like.

Kyomu closed his eyes, thinking long and hard about what he wanted his image to be. He didn't have anything particular in mind. He also didn't care for anything flashy. Something simple was what he wanted. Something so simple and low-maintenance that he wouldn't even have to think about it too much.

With this thought out, he opened his eyes and sketched out what he thought on the template. And what he imagined was something so simple it would be impossible to misinterpret: black boots, black pants, black shirt, and a black trench coat. What he actually drew was a mass of black scribbled along the little printed person, but the idea still stuck.

"Done," he sighed, tossing the form away. His head then slowly rolled to the side, his alarm clock coming into view. "Noon, huh? Yeah, that's late enough."

He then promptly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

 **Present**

On the bright side, they'd listened to his request on the costume's color palette. They'd also gone into a bit more detail than he would have liked, but it was mainly what he wanted. And what he wanted was some simple black clothing.

Even if they went overboard a bit with the design.

"Ground Beta," he muttered to himself as he and the rest of the costumed students made their way through a tunnel leading to one of UA's training grounds. "How many training grounds does the school need, anyways? And where do they get the money for it?"

"Are you okay, Shinka?" Kyomu's head swiveled downwards when he heard Midoriya's voice. It almost snapped back up when he saw the student's costume.

It wasn't a... terrible costume. It certainly wasn't the same quality everybody else had, that was for sure. It looked less like a superhero costume and more like a green, homemade onesie. With rabbit ears. And a mouth shield that looks like it was cut out from a tupperware container.

"D-dude..." Kyomu stuttered, shaking his head and doing his best to stifle laughter. "Why does your costume look so awful...?"

Midoriya looked offended, but with that thing he was wearing, Kyomu didn't see how. "It isn't awful!" he defended. "My mother made this for me."

Oh, that explained why it looked so inferior. "You know they doled these suits out for free, right?" Kyomu asked. "And that the thing you're wearing probably isn't going to last through the day before being shredded due to the fact it's made of cloth and the rest of our suits are made of actual combat material?"

"Yeah, I know." His shoulders slumped. "But my mom made this for me before I got the order form, and she put so much effort into it and everything, s-so I didn't want to disappoint her by turning it down." He looked back up and Kyomu. "You would have done the same thing, I bet."

"No, I wouldn't have," he said. Midoriya huffed and crossed his arms. "How's your finger, though? Doin' fine?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Recovery Girl fixed it up for me." He uncrossed his arms shook his previously injured hand. "Don't know what I'd do without her at this point."

Kyomu hummed. Having a body-destroying Quirk did seem hard to use without a healer on standby. But even so, he'd never known a Quirk to hurt a user like that. It that were the case, All Might would have been killed by his own super strength Quirk long ago. Or whatever the hero's Quirk was that made him so strong. So what made Midoriya, who had a strength enhancement Quirk of his own, so different?

"Hey, Mido..." He leaned in closer to Midoriya's ear. "What, uh, what's the deal with your Quirk?" he asked. "Quirks shouldn't break fingers like that. You're not defective or anything, are you?"

"N-no, nothing like that." Midoriya shook his head, causing the two rabbit ears on top of his head to flop around. "It's, well... it's... remember at the exam when I said I 'recently' developed my Quirk?"

"Yeah...?"

"When I said recently, I meant about an hour before the exam began."

"Are you serious?" Kyomu blinked his eyes as the very serious-looking face of Midoriya. "You _are_ serious. What the hell- you're fifteen like the rest of us! Shouldn't that have kicked in way sooner!?" he quietly hissed.

Midoriya gave a small, nervous chuckle and looked towards the side. "Doctors said I was a late bloomer," he said. "It's nothing unheard of, it's just extremely rare. Imagine my surprise, huh? All that time I thought I was Quirkless."

Kyomu shivered. He didn't want to imagine being without his power. "So that's the issue?" he guessed. "You're body just isn't... what, adjusted to it?"

"Something like that," Midoriya answered. "It'll get better in time. Hopefully when I get some practice in I won't bust a bone every time I use my power." He let an endearing sound out. "Wouldn't that be nice?"

"How are you supposed to practice with a power that hurts you like that every time you use it?"

"... I'm still working on that."

The black-haired teen patted Midoriya on the back and stepped away as the light at the end of the tunnel grew near. "You let me know how that works out for you," he said.

 _"Late Quirk-bloomer, huh?"_ Kyomu thought. The class had finally arrived at the end of the tunnel leading into Ground Beta, the teen's face being warmed by sunlight as they stepped through. _"Guess it's possible. Explains why he's so terrible at using his power, but... geez, I wasn't even that bad when I started using mine at first. But I guess I can't really talk with this body of mine."_

All Might was waiting for them a bit past the tunnel's exit with three boxes next to him. He seemed ecstatic about their costumes considering how he was shouting about how cool they all looked.

 _"Though... what was Midoriya doing signing up for the UA entrance exam to the hero course without a Quirk? If it was an hour before the practical... yeah, there's no way he could have known. So-"_

"Lookin' good, Kyomu!" A rough shake his his shoulder roused him out of his own thoughts. "Keeping up with the dark punk look, eh? Ooh, but you added a cool modern-retro touch to it."

"'Modern-retro'?" Kyomu questioned, turning around to face Sen. "And I didn't do anything. I asked for some clothing, and they-" he reached down and shook at the bottom of his duster, "- gave me this ultra-light and ultra-durable souped-up mega coat with this dumb carbon-fiber texture on it. They went so overboard it isn't even funny." With a sigh, he let go of the fistful of material and sighed. "But hey, it's free. So I can't really complain."

Sen tilted his head. "What it with you and free clothes?"

"What's there not to love about free clothes?" Kyomu looked down at Sen's torso. "You certainly went for the same simplistic route like I did." His face soured. "And it looks like the developers actually listened to you."

Sen's costume was something extremely basic in that the actual complexities came in the colors and decals. Outside of that, it was a simple white karate gi. A white gi dotted with flame-like decals that were vaguely shaped like radiation symbols.

"Yeah, I love it," Sen said. His eyes narrowed and he turned towards one of the other students, a blonde with a tail. He, too, had a gi for a costume, though his was a plain white one. "I think that guy copied me, though."

"How could he have possibly known what your costume was going to be?" Kyomu asked.

"I dunno, man, maybe he has a foresight Quirk or something."

"... Sen. He has a tail. And I don't think he even knows your name."

The bald teen turned away from the Kyomu and grumbled insults under his breath. Kyomu's response was to roll his eyes, which eventually ended on Sen's waist and the yellow belt around it. "I think they messed up your belt," he said.

"Huh?" Sen turned his head downwards. "Oh, no. That's just mine."

"... The yellow doesn't fit."

"Okay, I can explain." Sen reached down and took up two ends of the yellow belt. "So, like, when I was young I went through this karate phase and went to a lotta classes and everything, but I only ever got up to the yellow belt. Grew bored of it after awhile. And I wanted this aesthetic for my suit, so I put in the belt."

"So why not just include an orange belt?"

"'Cause then it wouldn't be authentic."

"Sen, nothing about what we're wearing is authentic." Kyomu gestured to his own attire. "You think I dress like this in my free time?"

Sen's eyes narrowed. "If you take the trench coat off, you look literally the same from how you looked at the exam."

"At least mine's just not a white boiler suit," Kyomu muttered, looking towards the scarred student with the white-red hair. A student whose left side was entirely covered in ice.

The two had decided to leave the comments for their costumes there, as the other students had finally quieted down and All Might looked ready to speak. Kyomu had still glanced down at Sen's yellow belt from time to time, however, looking at it disdainfully.

"Now, it's time for combat training!" the hero announced. "This is a real-"

"Sen, you really need to drop the yellow belt," Kyomu whispered to Sen as All Might explained the combat training in front of them.

Sen snapped his head to Kyomu. "You're still on this!?" he hissed. "The teacher's explaining what we're doing! You can't do this again, Kyomu!"

"I'm listening with one ear, don't worry," he said. "L-look, just let me open a portal and I can just get rid of the belt. It'll just take a second."

"Get your Quirk off my belt!"

"Alright!" The two were interrupted when All Might slammed a yellow box on the ground in front of him. "Time to draw lots!"

It was here that Sen was about to go off on Kyomu for having ignored a teacher once again in explaining instructions. He didn't manage to get the words out, however, as Kyomu had given him an assuring look. "We're drawing lots for teams," he said. "Told you I was listening. Now wait here a sec, would you?"

Kyomu was the first student to step towards the lot box, leaving Sen behind in confusion. He leaned over the yellow box as All Might encouragingly watched, the teen's hand shooting down and rooting around. He finally came up with a small slip of paper, nodded to himself, and went back towards Sen as other students lined up to draw lots.

Before he could even get a word out, the slip of paper Kyomu had drawn was thrust into Sen's hand. He looked down at it, tilting his head when he saw "Team G" printed on the paper. He then looked up, his eyes shooting open when he saw that Kyomu had another slip labeled "Team G".

"I took both so we'd be on the same team," he explained. "So when you go to draw just hide the slip in your hand and pretend to draw it so it looks good."

Sen's eyes went back and forth from his slip to Kyomu's. "That's... how'd you get that past All Might?"

Kyomu shrugged. "I'm good at magic tricks," he said.

"Then why didn't you model your costume after a magician?"

The black-haired teen opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it. "That would have actually been a good idea," he admitted. "Oh, well."

Sen rolled his eyes, and then went to "draw" along with the rest of the students. A minute passed, and after the drawing was over everybody had grouped together in pairs with the partners they had made.

Strangely enough, Kaminari was standing next to Kyomu and Sen.

"Uh, Kaminari?" Kyomu snapped his fingers to draw the blonde's attention. "We're already a pair. You lost or some- oh."

Kaminari had held up his own team slip. It was also labeled "Team G".

"All Might said we had an uneven number of teams, so a couple of us had to make a three-man team," he explained.

"That so?" Kyomu looked over his shoulder in search of a group of three, which he had found almost immediately. He nodded to himself when he did a headcount of who it was in the team.

The tiny student with the ball hair, a dark-haired girl with strange, string-like earlobes, and the female recommendation student.

They were all staring at their group. And All Might was smiling right at them.

"So! To start things off, why don't we have our odd-man groups face off first?" He pointed both hands at Kyomu's group and the other three-man group. "And to decide who's doing what...!"

His hands shot down into a white box labeled "hero" and a black box labeled "villain". Then they rose up, each grasping a white and a black ball with a letter printed on it.

"Team G are the villains!" he announced. "And that means team C are the heroes!"

"We're the villains, huh?" A look of competitiveness spread over Sen's face as he peered over towards the other team of three. They were already huddled together, talking among themselves while taking quick glances at their group occasionally. "Pretty unfitting considering we're learning to be heroes, huh, Kyomu?"

Kyomu didn't respond at first, instead choosing to observe the team they would be fighting as they conversed among themselves. Fighting other students. He'd never fought before. Killing with his Quirk seemed like something entirely different from fighting non-lethally.

Sounded fun.

"I dunno," Kyomu said, answering Sen's previous question. "I think I can get behind the idea fairly quickly."


	9. Chapter 9

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 9- The first day- part 3**

* * *

The scenario was very simple:

The team labeled villains had a "nuclear bomb", i.e. a fake black and red bomb casing around ten meters tall, that they had to hide and protect in a fake training building that was built with many floors and rooms. Where that bomb was hidden was up to the discretion of the villain team, and they would be given some time to prepare for the heroes.

The heroes had the job of either A) capturing all two (three in their case) villains by rendering them immobile with provided capture tape, or B) touch the bomb. If they failed to do either one in the allotted time, the villains won. If they did capture the villains or touch the bomb, they won.

It was the "touching the bomb" part that had Kyomu concerned. They had home field advantage, sure: they, unlike the heroes, knew where the bomb was and were allowed to memorize the layout of the interior to form any possible strategies. That technically should mean that they had the advantage. But if the heroes located the bomb, and worst-case scenario all three made a break for the bomb and managed to so much as scrape a finger across it...

Well. Home field advantage wouldn't matter anymore.

And to make matters even worse the entire class and All Might were watching them on cameras from a monitoring room, so he had that pressure to go off of, too.

"Ugh, these rules suck..." he mumbled to himself as he ran a hand over his face. "Everybody's watching, too. Kinda nervous."

He never did do too well with performing in front of others scrutinizing his every move. Mostly because they always took that opportunity to make fun of every mistake he made. So, as a defense for that, he decided to never make any mistakes. He wasn't so sure that strategy would work out too well in this scenario, though.

"So, Kyomu?" Sen called. "You got a plan, right? Because I honestly think we should have taken this bomb up to a room on the top floor."

The black-haired teen turned around. Sen and Kaminari were standing in front of the bombshell in a room that was virtually the exact same as every other room: dark, gray, and full of support pillars and a few wood crates here and there.

Sen seemed to be waiting for Kyomu to explain, whereas Kaminari seemed a bit nervous. Kyomu had been adamant with that the bomb be placed in this room once they got the layout of the building, and though the other two had pressed for a room at the top floor, Sen had trusted Kyomu's judgement enough that they put the bomb in a room right below the top floor. The looks on their faces alone told Kyomu that they hoped he had a plan.

He did, in fact, have a plan. In the works. He just needed some details first.

"I think we should start by doing an ability assessment," Kyomu started. "We need to know where our strengths and weaknesses lie so we can better coordinate the plan. So, Kaminari. What's your Quirk?"

Kaminari, whose uniform Kyomu much approved of due to it, like him, being simple black clothing but with white lightning details, nodded towards the black-haired teen. "Mine's named Electrification," he started. "It let's me electrocute everybody in a small radius around me." He let out a sheepish grin and scratched at his cheek. "I, um, can't really direct it too well, though, so it doesn't really discriminate against who it shocks. And I shouldn't use it too much."

Kyomu nodded. "Short-range limited-use arc pylon, got it." He turned towards Sen. "And you?"

Smiling, Sen flattened his hands and did his best impression of a karate pose as he began explaining. "Alright! My Quirk, Atomic Karate-"

Kyomu barked off a laugh and turned his head away from Sen. Kaminari, similarly, began snickering besides Sen, who began to fume.

"What?" he demanded.

"W-why'd you name it something like that, dude?" Kaminari asked between laugh, both he and Kyomu doing their beat to calm down.

Sen's cheeks turned red as he turned away from the two. "... I named it after my favorite song," he muttered. More laughter ensued from the explanation. "I'm two seconds away from walking out and failing the whole group."

"Alright, alright." The grin fell away from Kyomu as he prompted Sen to continue, who huffed and turned back around.

"Hmph." He crossed his arms. "Like I was saying, Atomic Karate allows me to absorb any amount of kinetic energy with an arm. The collected energy is than transferred to the other arm, where I can use the stored energy however I please." He glared over at Kaminari. "Like knocking the block off of anybody who laughs at my awesome names."

Holding up two hands, Kaminari took a step back. "H-hey, man, I didn't say it was funny," he said. "It's super creative, actually! Props."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Kyomu nodded. He'd figured it was something like that after seeing him destroy that robot at the exams and what he'd done with the ball at the assessment. So he could negate physical force- and then deal it whenever he wanted. He could even build up his own energy if he wanted to if him punching his own hand said anything. That had applications.

Putting those aside, the black-haired teen coughed. Time for him to explain his Quirk. Been years since he'd done that, now that he thought about it.

"My Quirk is Void," Kyomu began. He flipped his palms towards the ceiling and snapped his left hand. A flat, spherical hole opened up above it. "I can create stable portals that act as a entrance to a separate dimension of empty space." He snapped his right hand, and a ever-shifting, unstable portal opened above it. "I can also create unstable portals that scatter the matter of anything that touched it to Void," he concluded.

"Define that scatter bit," Sen requested.

"It means one atom gets thrown over there, another one gets thrown a trillion miles away from that one, and so on," he said. Both Sen and Kaminari paled. "Anything that goes through that portal is lost forever. Period. There's no recovering it."

Kaminari rubbed the back of his head. "Geez, intense," he muttered, but then looked up at Kyomu. "But you can do all that teleporting stuff with the stable portals, right? So couldn't we all just hide ourselves and the bomb in Void while we wait out the clock?"

Sen actually looked excited at the prospect, and Kaminari was smiling at the idea. Both of their shoulders fell when Kyomu shook his head.

"Doesn't work like that," he said.

"Why not?" They both asked in a disappointed tone.

"Why do you two think I call it Void?" Kyomu asked. "I wasn't exaggerating when I said it's an empty dimension; there's nothing there. No heat or light, so the temperature is literally absolute zero. There's no pressure, no gravity, no oxygen... you both would flash-freeze and explode the instant you set foot through a stable portal. It's worse than outer space in there. Hell, I'm not even sure if time flows in there or not." The two students were now taking unconscious steps away from Kyomu. "And if you went through a unstable portal, you'd just disappear. Same with objects- I lost a whole lunch trying to store food in Void as a kid once." Kyomu closed the portal and pocketed his hands. "Doesn't effect me, though. The stable and unstable portals. I can pass through them and void just fine without any ill effects."

It was a fact he was never able to piece together any logic to. Even with his body, he should freeze in Void or be atomized from the unstable portal. Yet, he never was. And no matter how many science books he read, he never could find an explanation.

But this was an age of Quirks, and last he checked modern science barely had a grip on the forces that made Quirks work no matter how much the biologists tried to play it off. This had lead to the popular excuse of "Quirk logic", where anything explainable could be explained away with two simple words. Boy can survive in a vacuum despite all science saying the contrary? Quirk logic. Someone has a Quirk that can turn other Quirks off by looking at them? Quirk logic.

In short, he didn't know how it worked, and he didn't need to know.

"Okay." Sen nodded at Kyomu's explanation. "Soooo... what's our game plan here?"

Right, the plan. Kyomu had one. A good one, too. He just hoped the other two would follow along with him.

"Alright, first thing's first." Kyomu stepped over to Kaminari and placed his hands on his shoulders. The teen gave him an odd look as he was guided towards the bomb. "Kaminari, we can't have you accidentally shocking us, but if you shock the enemy, that'd be great. However, you can't aim it well. So your job is to stand right here next to the bomb and use your Quirk to electrocute anybody who comes close to it so they don't touch it." He stopped the teen's body when they were next to the bomb. "You are quite literally the last line of defense. So don't mess up."

"Oh, I get it!" Kaminari gave Kyomu a thumbs-up. "Alright, yeah! I can totally do that!"

"'Kay, great." Kyomu turned to Sen. "Your job is to fight anybody that makes it to this room and make sure they don't get to Kaminari. Once the match starts, start building up energy in your arms. You have time on your side. Use it."

The bald teen slowly nodded. "Okay, but what are you going to do?"

"I chose this room for a reason," Kyomu explained. "It's high up, so it'll take the heroes longer to get here, and there's a room above it, so they can't find a way in through the roof. Furthermore, there's only one door in here. As for the windows..."

Kyomu snapped his fingers. One by one, the large, rectangular windows adorning the walls were filled with pure blackness as Kyomu placed portals to Void inside of them. Consequentially, the room was so dark that the only source of light was whatever managed to make it through the doorway.

"Nobody will be getting in through there," he said. "I'll put one in the doorway, too. That way there won't be any entrances unless one of them punches through the floor, wall, or ceiling."

A portal to void took up the entrance's space. The room was then placed in pitch-black darkness.

"Uh, guys?" Kaminari called. "I can't- I can't see anything."

"Yeah, Kyomu seems to have plunged the room in eternal darkness, Kaminari." Though he couldn't see it, Kyomu was sure that Sen turned towards him. "How're we supposed to fight if we can't see?"

"If they blow a hole into the room, light will come in and you'll be able to see," Kyomu answered. "You'll also know somebody is attacking if that happens."

"Oh. Okay. So what are you doing?"

"Ah, you know. Just gonna be productive is all." There was the sound of a loud thud shortly after this was said. "... I hit the wall."

Sen snorted. "Nice."

Grumbling quietly to himself, Kyomu felt along the wall until he found the portal he used to seal off the one entrance to the room. Without another word he stepped through, leaving his two fellow "villains" alone with the bomb.

An awkward silence between Eikyo Sen and Kaminari Denki ensued.

Sen coughed. "So, uh... know any good word games to pass the time?"

* * *

"What the- I can't see anything in there!"

The vocal complaints of the remainder of the class watching the mock fight was very apparent as they saw from the monitors Shinka shroud the room containing the bomb in complete darkness.

"Hm..." Of the many students looking at the monitor, there were some who were giving it contemplative glances rather than ones of disappointed outrage. Midoriya was one of those students.

 _"Shinka's Quirk... I haven't really figured it out,"_ he thought. The fact alone surprised him, considering how avid he was in his hobby of analyzing Quirks. He hadn't kept that notebook around all those years for nothing.

But Shinka was a mystery he had yet to crack. Not just his Quirk, but his character.

Was he nice enough? Midoriya supposed so. He hadn't talked to that many 1-A students as of yet to get a good reading on them, but he'd talked with Shinka at the very least. He was quiet, and maybe even a bit shy. Had an extremely well memory, too, considering he'd remembered him of all people after a whole decade, and they'd been _four_. A bit inquisitive and maybe even a bit concerned over how Midoriya had hurt himself, which had been something that had given him a bit of relief, even if he had to lie about his Quirk.

Shinka was a nice person, but not nice enough to trust with a secret like that.

But outside of that... no, Midoriya knew very little about his fellow student. Least of all his Quirk.

"Midoriya?" The small teen looked up at the taller, glasses-wearing teen who had addressed him. One of the only friends he had made so far in this class. "What do you think he's doing with that room?" he asked.

"I don't know, Iida," Midoriya answered honestly. "I've been observing him since the assessment, but his Quirk is a bit of a mystery to me." He cupped his chin with his hand as he looked down at the floor. "I know he can make those black portals, but what are the exact functions of those portals? Is there a limit to how many he can make? Is there any debilitating effects on him when he hops through them like that? Ooh, maybe he can make other things or people go through them like he can? That would make a really excellent support Quirk for moving heroes or even injured people around, maybe even debris from disasters..."

"M-Midoirya...?" A small shake on his shoulder from Iida knocked him out from his mutterings. "You, really make a habit of doing that, huh?" the taller student laughed.

He gave a small grin. "Heh. Sorry." He rubbed the back of his head as he looked up at the monitors. "Well, if there's one thing I know about Shinka for sure, it's that he's strong. The assessment more than proved that." His eyes suddenly shot wide open. "I think he's overestimating his ability here, though!"

The students and teacher who had heard him looked up at the monitor, only for them to have similar results. They showed Shinka was on the first floor of the building, in the main room that came off the front doors. He was just sitting on the ground, arm slung over his knee as he tapped on the ground.

Almost like he was waiting.

"That bastard..." Over to his side Midoriya heard Bakugo swear under his breath. "The hell is he thinking?" the blonde huffed. "Is he gonna try to fight all three of the heroes on his own? He won't stand a chance."

"He proved himself to be fairly physically adept at the assessment, but even so, this is extreme," the scarred student near the back of the class muttered as he stared up at the monitors. "Isn't he already straining himself by keeping those portals around the room with the bomb? How far does he plan to push himself?"

A laugh from the bulky teacher in front of the class drew the students' attention. "He's taking this villain role more seriously than I thought he would," All Might said. "You'll find something like this is common in the hero world. Villains are always overestimating the strength of their own abilities by stretching their Quirks to the limits and by fighting multiple heroes at once. Some do it to impress their colleagues, while others will do it just because they think they can." He shot his index finger high above his head. "However! While extremely rare, the possibility of a hero group facing off against a solo villain who actually possesses adequate ability to successfully face off against them exist, and they will more often than not be smart enough to know this. One of the many challenges of hero work is to distinguish between the arrogant and cocky villains and the dangerous and calculative ones." His finger slowly drifted towards the monitors. "It's a lesson our three heroes here are about to learn right now."

Midoriya heard himself audibly gulp when he saw his three classmates, the heroes, approach a sitting Kyomu. _"Please actually have a plan here, Shinka,"_ he thought. _"You're smart, I know you are. You couldn't have made it into UA otherwise! So you have a plan, right? Right!?"_

* * *

Kyomu's plan was an extremely simple one: fight the three heroes on his own until the clock ran out.

One would consider it a foolhardy venture, even himself, if it weren't for the fact he knew the limitations of his own body. And those limits far exceeded that of the three students playing mock heroes that were coming to fight him right this second.

Not only that, but he'd seen what their Quirks were at the assessment earlier today. That information had been crucial towards him devising this whole plan, from him sealing off the bomb room to him sitting on the floor waiting for them.

All thought out. All calculated.

He was going to win. And it was going to be easy.

"Ah, man, finally. You three are late," he said upon hearing the approaching footfalls stop. He looked up to see the three students staring at him from the other side of the room. "So let's see who we got here... I'm pretty sure I got your names off of the assessment score board..."

He pointed towards the girl with the short dark hair and the prehensile earlobes. "Jiro." He pointed to the small, male student in the purple costume. His eyes momentarily lingered on the round piece of clothing that wrapped around his entire crotch, and he mentally noted on how it looked too much like a diaper for his liking. "You're, uh, Mineta. Yeah." He then pointed at the tall, female student. The recommendation girl. "And you're... yao, erm... yayo... yayao-yoyo-yaa... don't tell me, it's on the tip of my tongue-"

"My name is Yaoyorozu," she interrupted with a small scowl.

"Yaoyorozu, I was just about to say that!" Kyomu snapped his fingers, as if the revelation had just come to him the second the female student opened her mouth. "Gah, your name's a mouthful. You ever thought of shortening it? Just, like, cut some letters out and stick a hyphen in somewhere for a nickname? Ya-rozu or something?"

"Enough, villain!" A metal pole being spawned out from the girl's body was soon pointed straight at Kyomu. "Where have you hidden the bomb? I won't ask a second time."

"Man, you're really taking this role-playing stuff seriously, huh?" With a roll of his eyes, Kyomu shifted positions so that his other arm was resting on his other knee.

"Of course I am. I wouldn't be at UA if I didn't take matters seriously, villain."

Kyomu snorted. "That's rich. To answer your question, the bomb's around."

"And your collaborators?"

"Definitely in this building."

She looked frustrated at the response. Though his outward appearance seemed bored, inside Kyomu grinned. It's exactly what he wanted.

"You seriously alone in here?" Jiro took a step forwards, he earlobes waving around her. "Pretty ballsy move," she noted.

The black-haired student shrugged. "Not really," he said. "My team's victory against you three is a hundred-percent guarantee." He took note of how offended they looked at that as he spread his arms wide. "So, y'know, we can either go through that or we can all just sit around in a circle, get to know one another since we'll be learning together for a few years and all that."

He was being completely genuine when he said this, if only to avoid fighting in lieu of the easier outcome. And he had really hoped that they would go along with it, too. And when he had seen Yaoyorozu's eyes momentarily close in contemplation, he'd had the hope that she was actually considering it.

Those hopes were dashed when she opened dark-gray eyes full of conviction.

"The fact that you would show such arrogance towards us proves how inept you are," she proclaimed. "Maybe it's because you outscored all of us in the assessment, or maybe it's because you are just naturally that foolhardy. It doesn't matter regardless. We will defeat you and dispose of that bomb."

She raised her pole in a stance ready for combat. Similarly, Jiro's earlobes flitted near her boots and Mineta pulled one of the dark-purple balls off his head.

Kyomu sighed. "Well, if you say so."

A dark hole opened under him, and he fell away.

The three mock heroes went on guard instantly, eyes darting around as they tired to spot where Kyomu had went. The answer had come when a portal opened over Jiro, a dark form dropping down on her. She managed to roll out of the way just as Kyomu kicked down, his leg slamming flat against the concrete as she turned to face him.

Interest piqued, Kyomu stared as Jiro's earlobes plugged their jack-like ends into sockets on the sides of her boots, and the speakers installed on the front began to beat. And then the awful cacophony of a heartbeat rang out so loud that the ground began to shake, and Kyomu, becoming suddenly very alarmed, dove out of the way of the soundwave heading towards him.

To his alarm, Jiro smirked at this. "Now, you two!"

Kyomu whipped his head behind him. Mineta, head bare of purple balls, was sticking his tongue out at him as Yaoyorozu, who stood at his side, aimed what looked like a large paintball gun at Kyomu. She pulled the trigger, and dozen's of Mineta's purple balls shout out from the large, blunderbuss-like barrel and towards Kyomu.

 _"Ah, gross."_ He could do nothing to stop the dull thuds of the balls hitting. Not painful, just annoying. _"Okay, what do these do? Weaken me or something?"_ He looked down at his hands. The balls were firmly affixed to his palms and fingers, restricting all movements. And no matter how much they shook, they wouldn't come off.

 _"They... stick? That's it?"_

"You were careless," Yaoyorozu announced as Kyomu lazily rolled his head towards her direction. "We observed the movements you made with your hands during the assessment. Every time you used your Quirk, you made a snapping gesture to activate it."

"And there's no way for you to unstick my sticky balls!" Mineta announced. "Your hands'll be like that for hours until they fall off!"

Kyomu grimaced. "Your Quirk's gross, dude. And is that seriously all they do? Stick?" He shook his hands to no avail. "That's... I'm not gonna lie, that's super underwhelming."

"Call it what you will. You're still trapped in those restraints." A flash of white cording appeared in Yaoyorozu's hands as she approached Kyomu. The capture tape. "Even if you resist, there's three of us and only one of you. Surrender, villain."

Humming, Kyomu looked down at the balls decorating his body. It was a good plan, he would admit it- stick him with balls in a moment of distraction. They probably talked about all sorts of strategies to get him into position, and he walked right into the easiest one for them to exploit. Much in the same way he prepared for them, they prepared for him. It was almost admirable, and in that moment Kyomu had felt a modicum of respect for them.

Too bad they were wrong.

"You're awfully presumptive," Kyomu stated when Yaoyorozu was steps away from him with the capture tape. She took large leaps back when black portals opened up in front of him, causing him to smirk.

"What!?" She and the other two heroes stepped back in shock as Kyomu stuck his hands inside the two warbling portals. He then promptly removed them, the balls having disappeared. "That's not... how could you-?"

"I only do the snapping thing because it looks cool," Kyomu answered. "That's all. I don't need to make any gesture to activate my Quirk."

Mineta, who was now shaking, pointed an unsteady hand at Kyomu's hand. "H-how did you get rid of my Pop Offs?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kyomu took a step forwards, creating more portals to get rid of the balls sticking to his body. "So you three got any more surprises for me, or were you just banking on that one trick alone?"

They only had the one. He knew just from the looks on their faces. And if he was honest, he was surprised they had paid such attention to detail concerning him and his Quirk. It would have even have been a good plan, too, if they were right. Even if he still could have likely taken them without his Quirk.

Yaoyorozu seemed to have recognized this, too, given the conflicted look on her face. They didn't know everything about his Quirk, whereas theirs were simple enough that he could figure them out at a passing glance.

 _"What you're thinking right now,"_ Kyomu thought, _"is if it's worth it to try and take me on three-to-one in hopes of overpowering me, or to try and cut your losses and go for the bomb. You'll have to leave one behind to stall me, though, and it has to be one. There's still two villains around. And because I'm the most dangerous one, Yaoyorozu, you'll be the one to stay if it comes to that. After all, you're the strongest hero here. But either way, I'll still win. Because I planned for all of this."_

An arm was held out by Yaoyorozu. "Go," she ordered. "I'll deal with him. Go get the bomb."

"But..." Jiro seemed to protest, but when she took a glance at Kyomu, she rigidly nodded. Mineta seemed all too eager to leave, and when the two ran past Kyomu in search of the bomb, he let them.

"And then it was two." Kyomu clapped his hands together. "Thanks for assuring victory for me, by the by."

Yaoyorozu's expression hardened as much as the grip around her metal pole. "Nothing is assured yet, villain."

"You know you can just use my name, right?"

She either hadn't heard him or didn't care enough to humor him, as she had swung the metal combat pole directly at Kyomu's face. Black patches opened up centimeters away from Kyomu's face as his eyes followed the pole, the end sinking into the portals as it swung past his face until it made a full pass.

The end result was that Kyomu was completely unharmed, whereas Yaoyorozu's pole was cut short.

"... You can disintegrate objects with your portals as well as use them for travel," she observed.

"Hey, look at you. Figuring it out." To the female student's apparent annoyance, Kyomu sat down on the ground once more in the same position she and the other two heroes had found him in. "Anyways, you're at my mercy. Can we pass the time by talking now?"

She rose a single eyebrow. "I'm not following."

Kyomu sighed, and with a snap of his fingers random black tears appeared all around Yaoyorozu's body. Her body went rigid, eyes affixed on Kyomu as he opened his mouth to explain.

"Your Quirk is the ability to create any object you want," he began. "I don't know the exact workings of it, but it's what you can do. But the fact of the matter is that I can just use my Quirk to disintegrate anything you make. Even if you bound my hands with that capture tape you have, I could just make a portal between the bands and saw it off of me." He rose a finger towards her. "Furthermore," he continued, "the spot you pull something out of your body gives off light whenever you make something. The room we're in is extremely dark, so if you were to try and make something to incapacitate me like a stun gun or tranq gun or something, I'd see it no matter where you try to pull it out." Finally, he clapped his hands together. "So. In summary, you're now a captured hostage for the duration of this training exercise. So, y'know, get comfy."

"I..." He could see that her eyes were darting around every which way, trying to come up with some plan to get out of the bind Kyomu had created for her. There wasn't one. He'd made sure of it. And to his delight, she seemed to have resigned to this outcome from the way her shoulder slumped.

Letting a shaky breath out, she sat down on the floor. Kyomu maintained the rips in space around her body.

"I spent a lot of time thinking about how we could use our Quirks to trap you before you could make a significant play. It turns out you were the only one who knew how to do that with your Quirk." A small smile came to her lips, and Kyomu saw a light of admiration shine in her eyes. "Congratulations on making me completely helpless. What school did you go to before coming to UA? It must have been very good to prepare you for things like this."

Kyomu barked a sardonic laugh out. "Nah, that school was trash," he said. "I'm just really good at this stuff is all."

Yaoyorozu blinked in surprise. "Oh." She chuckled and shook her head. "I hope for your sake your teammates are as competent as you," she said. "There's still a chance my team will acquire the bomb, with or without me."

"No there isn't." Kyomu shook his head. "You were actually the only one who had a chance of getting into the room we put it in. Why do you think I let the other two go without a fight?"

"... I'm sorry?"

"I placed portals in all the windows and the one entrance leading into the room. There's no way to get rid of them unless I dismiss them," Kyomu explained. "And believe me when I saw they won't be able to pass them, either. So that means the only way into the room would be to bust through the floor or walls." Kyomu stuck a thumb out behind him. "Mineta can make sticky balls. Jiro can produce powerful soundwaves, but I doubt they're powerful enough to bust through concrete that thick. If you were there, maybe you could have made a bomb or a construction tool or what have you to break through. But you're here." He rested his hand to his side. "

"B-but if they realize that and come back here to try and rescue me-"

"I'd place portals on all the entrances to this room to stop them from trying," Kyomu interrupted. "Face it. You're trapped with me, and they have no way to reach the bomb. And even if by some miracle they found a way, the other two villains are waiting with the bomb to stop them. You've lost."

Her eyes narrowed before her entire face fell in defeat. "You planned this all out, didn't you?"

"Heh, yeah."

* * *

"Is it an elephant?"

"No."

"Damn it," Sen swore. "What the hell else is giant and gray, Kaminari?"

"That's not a yes or no question."

Scoffing, Sen crossed his arms. An exceedingly difficult task to accomplish considering he was practically blind in this room thanks to Kyomu. But after some fumbling around he'd managed to find his own arms.

Twenty Questions, to most people, might not seem like the most productive pastime during a mock combat exercise. Sen was one of those people, in fact. But with the position they were in right now there was literally nothing else to do.

"Hey, let us in!"

Well, he and Kaminari could always try talking to the heroes attempting to break into the room, but they didn't want to.

"Told you before, and I'll tell you again. Kyomu's the only guy that can get rid of those and he ain't gonna do it!" Sen shouted. He shook his head and turned back towards where he presumed Kaminari was sitting. "Is it a ship?"

"Wrong again."

Sen sighed. "Think they can get in here?" he asked the blonde student.

Kaminari hummed. "I'm pretty sure Jiro can't make soundwaves strong enough to crack concrete. And when she tried before, Kyomu's portals sucked the waves up, so she can't even hurt us while we wait in here," he said. "And Mineta's... yeah, I think we're good. Don't know where the third one is."

"Kyomu's probably dealing with her," Sen muttered. "You know, I gotta hand it to the guy. It's an amazing plan and everything, but, well... we're not really doing much, huh? This feels less like training and more like Kyomu bailed us outta doing work by accident."

"Hey, I'm not complaining," Kaminari said.

"Mm." A pause. "Alright, final guess. Rhino."

"It was an plane."

"Son of a-!"

* * *

What could only be described as "the tensest boredom ever witnessed on surveillance monitors" was felt across the entire viewing class 1-A the the number one hero viewing the proceedings on the monitors before them.

One monitor was completely black. Another showed Jiro and Mineta sitting uselessly outside of the room containing the bomb as they stared straight at the portal sitting in the doorway. And the third monitor showed Yaoyorozu staring intently at Kyomu as he gazed aimlessly in whatever direction was most comfortably with his neck.

Suffice to say that it was a far cry from the high-octane excitement combat practice implied.

"So... is the villain team winning, or...?" The invisible student asked as the short sleeve on her uniform shifted.

"Shinka has effectively created a situation in which the heroes are powerless to do anything," the bird-headed student observed. "All the villains have to do is wait out the clock. The only hope the heroes have is capturing Shinka and forcing him to disable his Quirk, but... I don't see them doing that with the system he set up."

Kirishima let out a weary laugh. "I mean, it's not the manliest strategy in the world, but it sure is working."

At the front of the class, All Might tiredly sighed at the images on the monitors. _"I didn't think young Shinka would take this kind of direction when it came to fighting. He has such a good grasp on nonlethal applications for his otherwise deadly Quirk, and the ability to passively fight with it to boot. Hard to believe that he had absolutely no hero training prior to coming here to UA."_ He pressed his finger to the intercom button. _"I'll have to give young Shinka full marks for this. The other two... ah, I'll have to give it to them, too, even though they didn't actually do anything. Is that what a good teacher would do? I feel like somebody like Aizawa would demerit him for making his teammates sit on the sidelines like that, but... but that wouldn't be fair to his grade considering what he did!"_ The hero grimaced. _"Why is teaching so hard!?"_

Shaking these thoughts from his mind, All Might spoke into the intercom broadcast his voice to all those in the building. He'd announced that too much time had elapsed and that the villains had one to exercise. The heroes hung their heads in failure while Kyomu calmly got up to his feet, snapping his fingers. The portals he'd placed in the bomb room disappeared and revealed Sen and Kaminari to be midway through a celebratory jump.

They quickly screamed and composed themselves when they realized they were visible in front of each other and likely the whole class.

The movement Kyomu made on the monitor suggested he laughed.

* * *

"While you had a great plan on restraining the threat, young heroes, you can't always judge a Quirk just by what you see. While young Shinka's hand movement may have been an accidental distraction towards the main function of his Quirk, it doesn't change the fact that you made a plan based entirely on a assumption, albeit a reasonable one."

The three students stood in front of All Might, blushes of embarrassment on their cheeks as the entire class glanced between the winning team and losing team. The villain team were right besides them, facing the hero with more confident smirks on their faces save Kyomu, who merely stared quietly.

"However," All Might continued, "you shouldn't feel too bad about it." The three students picked their heads up in surprise. "It's almost guaranteed a hero will run into a situation where the villain will have a Quirk that's just too much for them to handle, whether it be through raw power or because it has tricky applications like young Shinka's that the heroes on scene simply aren't equipped to deal with. And you can bet the smarter villains will take this fact into account when fighting. Take this loss as a lesson, not a defeat."

It seemed to cheer them up, at the very least. Kyomu was glad for that. While happy he had won, he didn't want the way he defeated them to cause any animosity between him and them. They didn't seem too beat up about it, though. They'd even congratulated them for a job well done, and Yaoyorozu had shared some kind words of encouragement with him.

"As for you villains!" All Might's smiling face turned towards the winning team. "Young Shinka! Your plan for dealing with the heroes was flawless! You took account for the individual weaknesses of the heroes that arrived and placed them in a situation where they couldn't act! That sort of tactic was nothing short of villainous!"

There was something wrong about somebody like All Might congratulating Kyomu on villainous acts. It just didn't sit right with the teenager.

"However, eh..." His heavily chiseled face turned towards Sen and Kaminari. "Perhaps next time you should give your fellow students a chance to shine," he suggested. "Or let them do anything, for that matter. It's hard to learn when they can't do anything."

"They were the back-up for when the heroes broke into the bomb room." Kyomu shrugged. "I honestly thought they would get further then what they managed."

"No you didn't," Sen said.

Kyomu glanced harshly at Sen while the hero team glanced harshly at Kyomu. The rest of the class and teacher sweat-dropped.

"Regardless..." All Might laughed loudly and rubbed the back of his head. "Good job all around! Now let's get the next team going!"

The two teams dispersed and made their way back towards the main crowd of students. Kyomu and Sen bumped fists and returned with Kaminari in tow, with the later two deeply engaged in a round of Twenty Questions. This left Kyomu to stare at them until he felt a tug on his sleeve.

He looked towards the tug. Midoriya was there smiling up at him.

"You did great in the exercise, Shinka!" he congratulated. "And your Quirk is so cool, too! And the way you used it to seal the bomb room like that while also pacifying the heroes, and you didn't even move that much-"

"Breath, man," Kyomu warned. Midoriya exhaled loudly and gave him a short nod.

"Sorry," he said. "Quirks excite me, and you just... performed really well. I think Iida wanted to congratulate you, too."

Kyomu looked past Midoriya and to the tall student wearing glasses. He robotically chopped an arm towards the teenager as a sign of good gesture as he introduced himself.

"Greetings!" he said loudly. "My name is Iida Tenya! It's an honor to meet a fellow student as adept as you are!"

Slowly, Kyomu used his index finger and thumb to shake the outstretched hand up and down. _"I can't tell if he's high-strung or just like that normally,"_ he thought. _"... Who am I kidding, of course he's always like that."_

Midoriya seemed to have a fun time watching the interactions of the two students. And then he looked over at All Might, who was holding up the balls of the next two teams to go. He visibly paled.

"Eh?" Kyomu, noticing Midoriya's distress, looked over towards the balls. "Oh, hey, you're up." He looked towards the black ball. "Iida, aren't you and Bakugo on that team?"

"We are." The tall teen caught onto Kyomu's sight line, and both slowly turned their heads towards Bakugo. He was practically snarling at Midoriya from where he was standing. "That doesn't bode well."

Kyomu nodded in agreement. "Well, it's just practice," he said, "and Midoriya's capable. I'm sure it'll go well between them."

* * *

Midoriya, at the very least, had one his fight against Iida and Bakugo. Both him and his partner, the one with the gravity Quirk.

He'd broken his arm in the process, but he'd still won.

 _"It's the second time today he's broken something,"_ Kyomu had tiredly thought after the second combat exercise. _"He really needs to get a handle on that Quirk. It's gonna do some permanent damage otherwise- or worse."_

Other than his worry over Midoriya, the proceedings afterwards had gone fairly well. Nobody else had been grievously injured to the point that they had to go to the nurse's office, and he'd even gotten the opportunity to see all his classmates use their Quirks.

His classmates' Quirks. There were so many of them with such varying strengths that it was hard for him to put a specific feeling on them. Some of them seemed powerful- the bird-headed one, Tokoyami, for instance, had such a sinister-looking shadow Quirk he called Dark Shadow. Others' Quirks were... well, they weren't terrible. All powerful in their own rights that Kyomu was sure would make excellent hero Quirks. Even Mineta's. Kyomu had to keep reminding himself that a hero school like UA wouldn't take somebody like him if he didn't have potential.

It didn't change the fact that Kyomu personally thought it was one of the worst Quirks in the class. But he was sure Mineta would turn out fine if this class didn't kill him first.

With how things were looking for the hero course, Kyomu put that likelihood in the twenty-percent ranges of at least one student dying before their three years were up. And it would probably be Mineta.

And then there was the scarred student, Todoroki, who had a Quirk so powerful he'd frozen a whole building in an instant. And it was rumored that wasn't even his full Quirk; he could apparently use fire like his father, too. And Kyomu was sure it was just as powerful as his ice powers.

He would surely outlast Mineta.

But at least the day was now over. And Kyomu would get to go back to his home- his incredibly cramped, practically-a-box room, to be exact. A room he probably wouldn't get any privacy in tonight because all the children at the orphanage were bound to be hanging off him asking him about his first day at UA. And unfortunately he had enough material for them that they weren't going to go away until it was past midnight and Mizo made everybody leave him alone. Then she would ask him until two in the morning.

Suddenly he missed the classroom.

"I dunno, man, I think things are looking pretty good." Sen walked besides him as they left the school grounds. They'd be like this until they reached the train station, which was at a fair distance to Kyomu's thanks. "Everybody so nice, you know? Well, most of them."

"Yes, Bakugo likes screaming at people and Todoroki keeps giving everybody the cold shoulder. We've been over this," Kyomu said. "But other than that, everybody is nice. I like it. In fact, I can't wait to go back tomorrow."

Such a nice change from his old school life. Such an enriching environment. He'd never experienced anything like it before. And talking so normally with people like he'd done with other students, interacting so freely... it made him feel feelings he hadn't felt in over a decade. And he wanted so much more of it.

"Especially that Midoriya guy. He's probably the nicest guy in that class. You know, when he isn't in the infirmary."

Kyomu sighed. "I have half a mind to threaten him into not using his Quirk until he figures out how to make it not hurt him," he said. "I know he wants to take everything so seriously because this is his dream and all, but can't he just wait a bit to get more used to his power? He has an incredible intellect. You'd think he could just subsist off of that until he learns how his body works."

"Yeah, well, when he's competing with a guy that can freeze a whole building in all of two seconds, I don't blame him." Sen shivered. "The hell's Todoroki's deal, anyways? He let out so much ice that he almost froze the monitoring room we were in!"

"He did?" Kyomu blinked in surprise. "I didn't feel anything."

"... Dude, we were all shivering. Even All Might."

Kyomu shrugged. "Didn't notice. Anyways, I wouldn't worry too much about Todoroki. He's trying to become a hero, right? So doesn't that mean he's a good person?"

"Yeah, probably. Unless it's one of those deals where he gets pressured into the family business and he's just here 'cause his dad made him. You know, like when doctors make their kids become doctors?"

"I... hadn't considered that." The two of them had finally arrived at the train station at this point. Kyomu was cupping his chin. "Oh, dear. That's no good."

"Ah, we're probably over-thinking it." The two students sat down in wait for the next train. "Okay, we talked about a guy with a broken Quirk. Now tell me who has the worst Quirk in the class- go!"

"Mineta," Kyomu said instantly. To his surprise Sen looked surprised at this.

"What!? Nah, man, Mineta's cool. The ball thing is slick as slick can get. Now that Sato guy- his Quirk is awful. Muscling up into super-strength mode is cool and all, but what's he supposed to do if he runs outta sugar? The guy's power is literally limited to item usage."

Kyomu hummed in agreement. "He's pretty fit, though."

"Oh, dude, _everybody_ in that class is fit. We're fit!"

"Mineta isn't. His body is worse than that of a child's."

"The hell's your problem with Mineta?"

"His costume makes it look like he's wearing a diaper and it has really creepy insinuations about his fetishes." Kyomu looked over at Sen. "You've seen him staring at all the girls in class. Even the invisible one."

Sen sighed. "Yeah, you got a point." A light above them dinged, and he looked up. At the same time, a train pulled into the station. "Well, that's my ride. Seeya tomorrow, dude."

"Mm." Kyomu waved his friend off as he stepped onto the train. Sen was given the briefest moments to wave back to him before the silver tube sped off into the distance.

Alone with nothing but random strangers and a cold bench to keep him company, Kyomu tilted his head up towards the station's ceiling cover. He let a low breath out as he waited for his own train.

 _"For the first time in years, I feel... happy. I'm happy in that classroom. Even happier than I've ever been at that orphanage. I've made the right choice."_ He felt something wet drop from the corner of his eye. _"My brother... I miss you. I wish you could have been here to enjoy this along with me. I wonder what you're doing right now? Probably... rotting in a cell because of me. Because of a villain. I hope I get to see you one day, Hikari."_

* * *

 **A/N- Yaoyorozu's name is a nightmare to write. Thank goodness for copy n' paste.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 10- jailbreak**

* * *

Today was the day. The day he would finally leave this place.

One way or another, at least.

 _"I could do it today. Tomorrow works, too... any day, really. I'm in no rush."_ These were the thoughts running through Hikari's head as he did his daily amount of push-ups in his poorly-lit isolation cell that was mandated by his own desire to keep himself fit for the day he actually decided to go through with this. _"But... I really want to do this as soon as possible. So I guess we're doing this today."_

He'd about reached the limits he could train his Quirk using a cheap lamp all these years. That and having spent so much time storing light for breaking out. So, with having finally reached maximum confidence in his ability to escape prison, he'd decided it was about time for absolutely no better reason than "now works as good as any other time".

Letting a heavy breath out, he stood up to his feet and made his way over to the cell's door. He stopped right in front of it, and banged his fist on it three times. He was barely able to hear the footsteps approach it from the outside.

"What is it?" A squeaky, nervous-sounding voice asked from the other side of the door.

Hikari had to suppress a groan. _"Ah man, Shinji's working today? I kind of like him."_

The roster of guards that worked at the prison was fairly large, and like any other decent institution the shifts and postings were rotated regularly based on who was working what day and what time it was. Hikari'd seldom had any conversations with any of the guards. Not many people wanted to talk to a psychopathic, Quirk-using parent-killer. Shinji was the one exception. The most mild guard in the whole prison, really, and the one Hikari had talked to the most.

"Hey, Shinji," Hikari greeted. "How, uh, how long I been here? Approximately speaking?"

"T-ten years, give or take," the man on the other side of the door answered.

"Mm. Yeah, ten years. And how long we known each other, Shinji?"

There was some muffled shuffling on the other side of the door. "I-I-I mean we talk... I wanna say twice a year? On average?" he said. "Hikari, I'm really not supposed to converse with the isolation prisoners, so if you're asking I do it more often-"

"Nah. Nah. I mean, that would be nice, but we're a little late for something like that." Hikari began to curl his fingers in an out. A ball of pure, white light began to shine from his hand. "Look. I just wanted to say I appreciated the... very little company you've given me over the years. It was practically nothing, but hey, it's the thought that counts. You're not too bad, Shinji."

"Uh... thanks?"

"Mm." The ball of light was about the size of a softball. "You think they'll ever let me out of here, Shinji?" Hikari asked. "Out of prison? Or is what I did just that bad?"

"You'll probably get a retrial when you're officially an adult," the guard said, "but, well... you killed your parents, Hikari. With your Quirk. And one was a hero. I don't think-"

"Yeah, me neither," Hikari interrupted. "So I guess there's nothing else to say about that. We could argue the semantics of locking up a child for life for something they did, but that wouldn't change anything. I'm a teenager now and I'm still in the same room they shoved me in ten years ago." He held his arm out. "So do me a favor and move really far to the left. Or right. Just- just move away from the general vicinity of the door."

There was a moment's pause. "Why?" Shinji hesitantly asked.

"Eh, never liked being locked up. Finally doing something about it." The entire interior of the cell was becoming heavily lit by the ball of light. "Seriously though, you're probably gonna be vaporized if you don't move."

The high-pitched scream followed by the sound of retreating footsteps was the only prompt Hikari needed to proceed. So he aimed the ball of light at the door and let it loose.

* * *

If one were to describe what it was that had interrupted what was otherwise a calm, slightly cloudy morning, they would be hard pressed to describe exactly what it was that had shot up into the sky. The best description for it was light. A great, white pillar of light that shot up from the ground and reached up past the very sky itself. The beam itself was so blinding that it had stunned any nearby citizens who had looked directly at it, and the heat and force it produced was so tense that it scattered away any clouds that were even near the light pillar.

And then it slowly thinned out until it ceased to be. The only tangible pieces of evidence that showed the pillar of light even existed were two things: the scattered clouds, and the fact that the prison where the beam had originated from now had a large gash running through its ceiling.

Inside the prison itself was absolute pandemonium. Alarms were blaring off overhead, debris from the destroyed ceiling was falling all around, and guards were running around screaming orders while the prisoners in their cells were pressed against the bars to see what all the commotion was about. And where Hikari's cell had been, the part of the prison that housed the isolation cells, the situation was the worse. The wing of the prison was practically unrecognizable from how much was destroyed.

As far as Hikari's actual cell was concerned, it didn't exist any more. It was little more than a hollow piece of crumbling concrete and slag that wasn't even visible from the amount of smoke pouring out of it. And then came the sound of coughing. A white-haired form stumbled out from the smoke and destruction, coughing heavily as they shook their hands and leaned on what was left of a wall to support themselves.

"Ack- agh, ah man. I've never done that before. That sucked." Hikari fixed his red eyes down at his hands. They were slightly red, cooked from the large beam he'd used to break out from his cell. "Oh yeah, I overdid it," he grunted to himself as he pushed off the wall. "Alright, Hikari- alright. Just gotta... just gotta get out of here now..."

In his defense, he didn't know the upper limits of his own Quirk. How could he with the conditions he'd been practicing in? He'd spent so much time, weeks even, gathering light from that one lamp without knowing the upper limits of how intensely he could shunt out gathered light. Because of this, combined with the fact he had never exerted his own Quirk this heavily before in his life, he had accidentally damaged himself along with the entire prison.

Regardless, he pressed on. He staggered away from his cell, intending to go the opposite direction of the location he had been held captive for so long. His plan was simple in that as long as he maintained that direction, he'd eventually make his way out of the prison provided he maintained a straight course.

"Hey! Hey, you!" Hikari tilted his head to the side. A prison guard with a club in his hand was running straight towards Hikari, face red with steam coming out from his ears. Either it was a Quirk or he was just that mad.

When he was within distance, Hikari punched him right in the face. A good, solid punch that snapped his head backwards and carried enough force to send his body flying back and to embed it into the concrete wall behind him.

Blinking in surprise, Hikari looked down at his red, throbbing hand. He'd barely even felt that. "Thanks, mom," he mumbled as he continued to press onward.

He'd managed to stagger his way into one of the main prison wings. Prisoners were making a ruckus in all their cells, and some had even escaped due to the damage Hikari had done spreading to their cells and releasing them.

A shadow fell over him. He looked up just in time to see a guard right behind him, a taser in his hand ready to be shoved down onto Hikari's neck.

He never made it that far. The guard's body seized up, gasping out in pain as white, wispy air escaped from his mouth. Hikari watched as frost built up along his entire whitening, shriveling body before darkening into an almost blue color. He then promptly shattered into an unrecognizable pile of dust.

Hikari looked down at the pile of dust, and then looked up. There was a man with a pale, outstretched hand that had been standing behind the guard. A young man with dark, flowing blue hair who only looked a few years older than Hikari himself. The orange jumpsuit he had on made it obvious he was a prisoner, the same as Hikari.

"You gotta watch your back, man. Guards love kickin' the shit outta us prisoners on quiet days. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of us get beaten to death 'cause of this," the prisoner said, chilled air escaping his blue lips as he batted his light-blue eyes at Hikari. "What happened here, anyways? Haven't ever seen a party this crazy here."

The pale man was interrupted by shouts from the other end of the wing. A four-man group of guards was running right at them, clubs and tasers in hand. Hikari's response was to raise a single hand.

 _"Middle of the day with a destroyed ceiling... all this sunlight spilling in here..."_ he thought as points of white light began to appear high over his shoulders. _"I feel like I could keep going forever with all this light for me to use."_

Eight small, pencil-sized beams if white light shot out from the points over Hikari's shoulders. They each found themselves going into the knee of one of the guards, all four toppling over and shouting in pain as their pants began to smolder.

"Hah ha ha!" The pale prisoner, with a manic look in his eyes, ran a hand through his hair. "Holy shit, man, I recognize those beams. You the one that cut up the whole prison!?"

"Yeah," Hikari answered. "I really wanna leave."

The prisoner barked another laugh out. "I can understand that. Well, since you were so kind to do this..." He turned around and walked towards the nearest wall. Immediately, he placed his hand on it. "Wanna help out a bit more?"

From the point the man had placed his hand, the off-white wall began to whiten brightly as cracks and ice spread over from that spot to the entire wall. In seconds, the entire segment of the prison was frozen over.

"My Quirk's Diamond Dust. Lets me instantly freeze anything I touch to near absolute-zero temperatures," he explained. "Shoot the wall so we can escape, wouldja?"

Hikari obliged. A thick laser of light came out from his palm, hitting the frozen section of wall. It crumbled to frozen dust the instant it made contact.

The two exited through the hole the second it was created. They had run a fair distance away from the prison, with the pair eventually closing the distance between them and a large fence that surrounded the whole complex. Beams of light made by Hikari made short work of it.

Panting, the two escaped prisoners looked back at the prison. It was obvious from the many guards swarming around and the few resisting prisoners that the situation was nowhere near contained. It seemed, however, that nobody was coming directly after them.

"Hah... hah... alright, cool," the ice-user muttered as he and Hikari turned around. There wasn't much to see around the prison other than the thick forest that surrounded it. "Five miles that way is the nearest city-" he pointed towards the woods, "- and the first you're gonna wanna do is lose those orange threads and get something to cover your face as soon as possible. They're scary fast with escaped prisoner response times. You'll have heroes breathing down your neck before you'll be able to do anything else. You're on your own after that."

"You're not coming with me?" Hikari asked. More of a genuine question than a legitimate request for him to stay with the white-haired teen. He didn't know how to feel around somebody who casually froze another person to death, but whatever he felt wasn't a good feeling.

"Nah. Got my own stuff to do." The ice-user waved him off. "Go on, scram. Guards'll see us if we hang around here too long."

Hikari didn't need any other words of convincing, especially from a villain. Or whatever one would call somebody that would freeze a prison guard to death. The only thoughts on Hikari's mind was leaving this place as quickly as possible.

A shining film of white light began to envelop itself over Hikari's entire body. His crimson eyes began to blow brightly, while his white hair glowed brightly while flowing as he glanced over at the villain. "Thanks," he said. "Seeya never."

And with that along with a burst of light, he was gone with nothing but a small, quickly dissipating trail of white behind him. By the time the ice prisoner blinked, that trail along with Hikari was already gone.

"Huh," he muttered. "Weird guy."

* * *

 _"Everything seems so... ordinary..."_ Hikari thought to himself. _"There's a bunch of posters and advertisements and stuff I don't recognize, but other than that everything looks about the same as it did ten years ago."_

He'd followed the other escaped prisoner's directions and wound up in the city right next to the prison. What city that was, Hikari had no clue. Nor could he just go up to somebody and ask them where he was. He didn't doubt news of the prison accident had already reached here, and even if a description of him didn't go out, he still had on his prison jumpsuit.

And even if he did know where he was, any clothes he ever owned were destroyed by Kyomu that night. So he couldn't exactly go back for those.

So this left him crouching behind a dumpster in the nearest alleyway he'd found upon entering the city, trying to come up with a plan. _Any_ plan. All his efforts had been dedicated towards escaping the prison alone. He'd had no idea what conditions would be like upon setting foot outside, so he'd never thought about it. The plan had just been to improvise once he escaped.

He was beginning to regret that decision.

At least his hands returned to normal, so there was that.

 _"I need clothes,"_ he thought to himself. _"Different clothes, something that can easily hide me, or at least my face. Where am I supposed to get those, though? I can't just walk into a store and buy them- and even if I stole them, it'd attract too much attention to me. Unless I just take some clothes from somebody..."_ He looked up at the dumpster in contemplation. _"It wouldn't be too hard, right? Just snag a guy walking down the street, strip his clothes, and dump him in the dumpster? It'd give me more than enough time. I could probably even snag his wallet and get some cash for transport if I really wanted to."_

It wasn't a thought that sat well with him, but with the desperate situation Hikari had found himself in, he was willing to go to almost any length to escape. And fortunately for him, there were a couple passerbys right in front of the alleyway he was hiding. And they were alone, to boot.

"Hey, did you hear?" one of the two young men asked. They looked old enough to Hikari to at least be in college. "'Bout that runaway train and everything?"

Hikari listened into the conversation, wholly expecting them to be talking about the prison accident. He was surprised they were more focused on a train.

"Yeah," the second one said. "What are they saying? That one of the bullet trains got taken over by a villain or something? Some kinda hostage crisis?"

"Mm-hm." The first nodded. "Apparently a bunch of heroes are fighting the villain on the damn train." He looked up at the train tracks above. "Come to think of it, doesn't that train usually run through here?"

As if one cue, the tracks above the street began to shake.

The two young men turned their heads towards one end of the street, along with Hikari who peaked his head out more just to see the commotion. There was indeed a bullet train speeding right towards them- sparks flying out from under it suggested the brakes had been pulled and that the train was attempting to stop. There were also a number of colorfully-costumed people using various colorful powers to fight a man on the train who had an equally colorful costume and power.

 _"The local heroes fighting the train villain,"_ Hikari thought. _"So close!?"_

There was a sudden, metallic snapping sound. A large piece of metal, likely a piece of the track, flew out from under the halting train. It wobbled from side to side, all those on board and fighting finding it hard to keep their balance.

And then, with a loud, screeching sound, the train veered off from the track halfway with the front half sliding through the air while the back half kept in line with the tracks. It continued to slip, however, with the front half of the train dipping so lowly from the tracks that it made contact with the sidewalk and began scraping through the concrete.

Unfortunately for the two passerbys, they were right in the path.

 _"They're not moving."_ From Hikari's perspective, the two young men seemed too afraid to actually move away from the large, rapidly-moving object that would surely kill them if it made contact. They were visibly sweating and shaking, but they made no effort to move away. _"Come on,"_ he thought, _"just duck into this alley! Or run to the other side of the street! Something!"_

Despite his silent protests, the two men didn't move an inch. The half-derailed train only grew closer.

 _"The heroes are too busy to do anything, and they're not gonna move out of fright!"_ Hikari felt himself bit at his lower lip. _"They're gonna die if I don't... but the other heroes will... but..."_

In that particular moment, Hikari's hadn't had enough time to think about all of the options available to him and the ramifications involving each outcome, never mind the time needed to actually choose which course of action to take. Even with the thinking speed granted by his advanced mind, there just simply wasn't enough time to think based on the speed of the derailed train and the distance it held between itself and the two men.

The result of this situation was that Hikari had made an unconscious choice to act. Even he himself was not aware of the fact he'd made the choice to begin with. He had merely felt his body move on its own, and following his unconscious choice his mind was automatically made up, as if he knew exactly what to do once he was moving.

"Speed of Light."

A white blur sped out from the alleyway and towards the two men. They both had no time to react as they felt themselves be grabbed, only to be moved to the other side of the street faster than they could see. By the time they'd gotten the motion sickness from their heads once they stopped moving, the train had already moved past where they had been previously standing. And much to their relief, it was stopped completely at the other end of the street.

Above the two men who were lightly panting on the sidewalk stood Hikari, who was looking down at them in relief while simultaneously and mentally cursing himself out for the exposure. Questions such as "did I do the right thing" and "am I in danger now?" popped into his mind, but he soon pushed them out as soon as they arrived. Looking down at the two men, he realized that he had saved their lives by doing what he had done. To his surprise, he didn't feel any regret.

"Y-you saved us...!" one of the men gasped. "Hey, man, thanks-!" his breath caught in his throat when he looked up at Hikari. His companion had a similar reaction when he looked up at their savior.

"Uh..." Hikari took a step back from them. "You're welcome?" He tried to give off a light laugh, but that didn't do anything to put them at ease.

It was now that Hikari began to grow nervous. _"Is it my jumpsuit? Or do they just recognize my face? Did they put an alert out on my personal escape!?"_

"Hey, you!" Hikari's body went ramrod straight at the voice calling out to him, though he managed to slowly turn his head around to the person who had addressed him. He only became more distressed at the sight.

A woman had walked up right behind him. And she either dressed very eccentrically, or she was one of the heroes involved in the train incident. She was panting lightly with a sheen of sweat over her body, but otherwise she seemed okay. To Hikari's alarm, however, she was staring right at him.

"You the one that just pulled those two guys out to safety?" she asked. Hikari dumbly nodded. "Alright. In that case, I'm gonna have to take all three of you down to the station."

The words spoken were so far from what Hikari had expected that he wasn't even able to formulate words as a response. Instead, he merely made a sound. "Huh?"

"You heard me. I saw you use your Quirk," she said. "Unauthorized Quirk usage is prohibited, and if we don't take care of this the fact you did this around the site of a hero battle could classify this as vigilantism. So c'mon. We're all going to clear this up."

Hikari blinked at the woman, and then looked down at the two men, and then back to the woman. "But-but they would have died if I didn't do anything," he said. "I was just- you're telling me I'm in trouble for _saving their lives_?"

"I don't make the rules, kid," the hero sighed. "Look, it's really not a big issue. Some boys in blue'll probably yell at you, your parents might get a fine, but that's it. You should count yourself lucky. This country doesn't look down on Quirk usage like that too fondly."

 _"They would have died if I didn't...!"_ Hikari had to repress a groan. Quirk restriction laws were just as strict now as they were back before he'd been sent to prison, it seemed. This, however, wasn't what he was concerned about. What he _was_ concerned about was the fact that a hero was trying to take him to the police. And to make matters worse, the two men he'd saved were still gawking at him in particular.

Suddenly, the hero's face scrunched up. "Wait a second..." she leaned in closer towards Hikari, and after her eyes briefly looked him up and down, they widened dramatically. "Hey, wait! You're one of the escaped-!"

Those were all the words the hero managed to say before Hikari's fist landed straight into her face. He felt bone and teeth shatter under his own force as her knocked-out body was sent flying away down the street. This automatically drew the attention of all the other heroes who were at the train.

"Oh, this is just... perfect..." Sighing, Hikari turned to the two men. "You both might want to run. It's likely about to get real bad."

To his incredibly small relief, they obliged him by getting up and ran away. The screaming didn't help matters very much, but to Hikari what mattered was that he was gone.

"Shinka Hikari." Upon the calling of his name via a deep, baritone voice, said teen's shoulders sagged as he turned around. There was a hero standing not ten feet from him. Other heroes were close right behind him. "We all got word about an hour ago that there was an escape from the local prison," he said. "Apparently your name came up as the prime suspect for wrecking the place."

 _"What kind of workout regimen is this guy on?"_ The red-haired hero in front of him was so large and muscled that he could have easily been a body-double for All Might. The key difference was the fire all around his dark-blue costume. And much to Hikari's confusion, a beard and small mustache made of literal flames. _"I don't even... why, though?"_

"You're under arrest, villain," the flame-hero announced. "Come quietly and things won't have to get any uglier than they already are."

After a moment of silence between the two, Hikari spoke. "Your fire mustache looks ridiculous."

The hero was either sensitive over his fiery facial hair, or he took his words as an act of resistance. Either way, the hero's face scrunched up in anger as he tossed a ball of fire right towards Hikari. It was quickly destroyed by a beam of light that passed right through it and grazed the hero's side. He winced as he looked down, teal eyes widening at the small, red gash at his side.

"Hrr..." What sounded like a growl escaped the hero's throat as he turned to the other heroes. "Everybody, stay back," he ordered. "I'll take him."

"But Endeavor-!" one of the heroes protested, but a flare-up up the flame-hero's flames quieted them all down. They moved away as Endeavor faced Hikari once more.

With a scoff, the flame-hero crossed his arms. "I remember reading about your case a bit after your trial was over," he said. "I knew your mother, GACT, too. She was a pretty useful hero until you disintegrated her."

"Ah-huh." Hikari's crimson eyes narrowed as he and Endeavor began to slowly circle each other. "And I guess you're of the popular opinion that I deserved to be locked in a room forever, is that it?" he asked.

"You're a Quirk-happy brat and who used his power to murder," the hero said. "Of course you belong behind bars."

"That's harsh, man. I was four." White light began gathering in Hikari's open hands. "So Endeavor, huh? Pretty sure I can guess your Quirk real easy. Fashion Disaster, right?"

Three fireballs were sent at him this time. And three beams of light passed through them, destroying them and grazing the hero.

"So I guess heroes can just get away with tossing balls of fire at teenagers these days, huh?" Hikari remarked. "Or am I an exception just 'cause I'm a villain?"

"You don't get to the number two spot without using a bit of force from time to time," Endeavor stated. "You should surrender now before I get serious. You don't want me to get serious."

"Ooh, number two. Good for you. A single step behind All Might." Crimson eyes went to the heroes muscles. "Guess chugging fifty protein shakes a day to get so cut wasn't enough to get you to that number one spot, huh? Guess it's not that surprising. I'm no fan of the big man myself, but at least his look doesn't make me wanna vomit." Hikari looked down briefly. "Wait, what does he even look like these days? He probably changed his costume or something," he muttered.

His quips seemed to get the hero riled up. Veins began to appear on his face, and though he kept his composure, the flames around him began to intensify.

 _"He's a hothead too, huh?"_ Hikari thought. _"Alright, maybe I can use this."_

"Endeavor. Pfft. 'Endeavor' to be the second-best hero more like it," he continued. "How long's All Might held that spot? He was still up there when I went to prison over a decade ago. I'd say you're slacking, but with muscles like those it looks like you're putting some genuine effort in there. Unless it's steroids. Which, after years of trying to get up there, I would still blame you for using. Wouldn't be a very heroic thing to do."

The flames grew ever larger.

"Your beard sucks, too."

That seemed to be the limit of insults the hero could take before a jet of flames came racing towards Hikari, so large it obscured the hero's form. Light glowed around Hikari as he ran forwards, jumping up high in the air right before the pillar of flames reached him. He twisted in the air, straightening his leg out as he fell to deliver a hard kick to the hero's head.

To Hikari's shock the ground below him was empty as he touched down.

He felt movement to his side. Hikari had just enough time do duck below the flaming fist and hop away from the flaming hero as he emerged from a wall of obscuring flames. His face was just as stony as it had been when Hikari had first saw him.

"If petty insults like that were enough to make me lose focus, _boy_ , I wouldn't be the number two hero," Endeavor said. "Though I'm surprised you managed to dodge that. Most villains usually fall for that ploy."

 _"He was faking that anger just to try and drop my guard?"_ Hikari thought. _"Who even does that? Agh... at least he made all these flames. Maybe I-"_

"You're probably thinking you can use that Light Quirk of yours to suck up all the light from my flames to use against me," the hero said, interrupting his thoughts. The teen's eyes widened. "Don't look so surprised. I wouldn't be a hero if I didn't do at least some background research on any possible villains within my immediate vicinity. I have a reputation to uphold." He held up a hand and snapped his finger. "It's over, villain."

 _"I can't tell if he's diligent in his job or conceited over his own ego."_ A ring of flames appeared around Hikari's feet. _"What's he doing now?"_

From the ring surrounding the teen, flames erupted. They grew high up into the air. Soon enough Hikari was surround on all sides, trapped in a hollow pillar of fire.

Hikari began sweating. The heat inside the pillar was sweltering enough that the air in front of him was distorted. Above all else, it was _bright_. So bright he barely even noticed the distortion of the air from the heat.

 _"So his solution to stop be from absorbing light from his flames is to surround me in bright flames."_ Through the heat, Hikari managed to shake his shoulders in amusement. _"Maybe he thinks I can't control the rate I absorb light and he's hoping to overload me or something. Or maybe, just maybe, he's- can't breath."_ Hikari's hands clamped to his throat as it began to tighten. _"Not good!"_

Coughing uncontrollably, Hikari fell to his knees as he began to weakly wheeze. The flames around him only grew hotter as his own vision began to darken.

 _"He's using this flame tunnel like a heat cyclone to deprave me of oxygen. He's trying to suffocate me!"_ Shakily, Hikari raised a hand away from his throat and pointed it at the ground directly under him. _"He's good... too good! I need to get out of here!"_

Light from the flames around Hikari flowed into his hand, and a short moment later a large beam shot out from his palm and destroyed the street under him. Concrete crumbled under him, and a sudden weightlessness fell over Hikari as he dropped down.

With a thud, Hikari soon hit the ground right below the street as he fell into the sewer. Immediately he started to breath extremely heavily. Stale, extremely nasty air, but air nonetheless that filled his lungs and allowed him the breath.

Slowly, Hikari sat himself upwards. He could still see the fire above the hole he'd made with his bleary vision and his jumpsuit was damp with sweat, but otherwise he felt fine.

 _"That... that crazy..."_ Groaning softly, the teen rubbed at his head. _"Was he trying to capture me alive or roast me alive!? Gah... least I-"_

Bubbling in the sewer water right next to him interrupted Hikari's thoughts. He was barely able to even turn his head towards the source of the disruption before something exploded right out from the water. He covered his eyes to shield himself from the splash, and then slowly lowered them to look at what had jumped out of the water and landed right in front of him.

The closest thing Hikari could come to describe the thing that stood in front of him was an anthropomorphic crocodile in a green and white suit. His scaly, extremely muscular arms were crossed and his yellow, reptilian eyes were fixed right on Hikari.

"Trying to escape through the sewers, huh?" the figure hissed at him. "Well, I'm afraid a feat such as that will be impossible. Not while I, the Sewer Hero Reptilio, live to-"

Hikari's hands stuck out in front of him, and two short beams of light fired out of them. The force of the beams propelled his body back away from the hero until he'd managed to flip his body to his feet. The film of light surrounded his body, and he took off in a dead sprint that the hero wasn't even able to follow with his eyes.

All glowing ceased approximately five seconds after Hikari began sprinting.

 _"What!?"_ The teen found himself tripping over his feet, his body skidding across the sewer floor as he slowed to a stop. _"Ugh... used up all my stored light already. And in a dark environment like this- oh, hey."_ His foot brushed against something. When he turned around to see what it was, he saw that it was a small, blue toolbox. And sticking out of the top, along with an assortment of other tools, was a flashlight. _"That works."_

Slowly, Hikari reached out towards the flashlight. The distant sounds of footfalls slowly approaching made him reach for the light quicker, and soon enough the tool was in his hand. He flipped it on, praying the batteries weren't dead and letting out a small "whoop" when it switched on, and immediately stuck his hand over it. The light made from the beam coalesced into a wispy substance that was rapidly absorbed into Hikari's hand, who began to sweat once more when he saw a large, dark form approaching him.

Tossing the flashlight away, Hikari rose his hand to the sewer's ceiling and fired a beam through it. Sunlight instantly shined down on him the second the hole was made, which gave him just the energy he needed to fire a large beam at the approaching man-lizard as he reached out for him. The hero was blasted back the other end of the sewer as a result.

"Agh." With his heart rate slowly declining, Hikari dipped his head backwards. "Sewer heroes. That's just... man." Sluggishly, Hikari rose up to his feet and looked up at the hole he'd made. He jumped upwards, hands clinging to the edge of the hole as he climbed out of the sewers.

Where he had risen up into, he hadn't a clue. This was still an unknown city, and the street intersection he'd popped out of looked about as generic as any other city street intersection. The exception, of course, bein the citizens screaming at his sight and running away. He supposed villains had that effect on people.

It also told him that his presence was public news now. The fact alone seemed to exhaust him.

And then a jet of water hit him in the back and floored him.

"Vile villain!" screamed a costumed man who was waving his hands around an opened fire hydrant. "You won't be terrorizing the citizens here any longer! Not while I, the-"

"How many heroes does this part of the city need!?" Hikari screamed as he knocked the hero back into the nearest wall with a beam of light. "Seriously, you're the fourth one in the last two minutes! Give me a break!"

From the corner of his eye, Hikari saw two more costumed people rushing towards his position. Growling, he stuck his hand out towards the street they were running down. A solid, continuous beam of light was produced from his palm, the end of which was dragged along one end of the street to the other, creating a molten path of fire to block him off from the heroes.

"Hah... ah..." Panting, Hikari looked behind him. Even more heroes were coming at him from the other end of the street, forcing him to use a yet another beam to keep them at bay. The same process was repeated for every other entrance leading to the middle of the intersection Hikari stood in, effectively sealing him off. Sighing loudly, he plopped down on the street and rubbed a hand across his tired face.

 _"Okay. Alright, this isn't working,"_ he thought. _"They're just gonna keep coming in greater numbers and at this rate I'll be too exhausted to outrun them eventually. Haven't gotten a moment's break since the prison."_ There were explosions in the distance. When Hikari looked up, he saw trails of smoke in the distance that were progressively getting closer to him. And he could almost _smell_ the heat coming from the source. _"Oh, and that fire guy isn't giving up the chase, either. Great. No wonder they call him 'Endeavor'."_

At this point, Hikari had closed his eyes in thought. Thoughts and plans whirled through his head as he tried his hardest to think of some way of the situation he had found himself in. Fortunately for him, he had more time to do this compared to what was available to him at the train incident.

His brows furrowed in thought, and very lowly, he sighed. As it stood, being a wanted villain surrounded by heroes wasn't doing him any favors. He did, however, think of one solution after considering all of his options. It was a solution that had the lowest chance of success, but given the time he had, it was all he could think of.

Unfortunately, it would require him to fight that flame hero.

 _"It's my only shot,"_ Hikari realized as the environment around him grew hotter. _"This isn't ideal, but... agh, no choice. So how do I go about defeating somebody who uses fire? What's their weakness?"_ At this point he could see the hero's dark-blue costume and flaming facial hair approaching him. He'd already stepped over the molten barrier Hikari had made with his light beams.

 _"Mm..."_ Groaning, Hikari stood up to his feet. _"Well, worth a try."_

By this point, Endeavor was standing right across from Hikari. The flames dancing around him seemed to have multiplied tenfold, and unless the teen was mistaken, the molten barriers he had placed earlier with his beams were now alight with fire, either intensified by the hero's Quirk or more simply having been doused with his flames. Hikari struggled to figure out if the purpose was to keep him inside or to keep other heroes out.

"You put up quite the chase, villain," Endeavor congratulated. "It ends here, though. You've caused quite enough damage for one day."

"Wait wait wait wait! Hold up!" Hikari hopped backwards, balancing on one foot as he pointed both index fingers at the hero. He quirked a flaming eyebrow in response. "Look, hero guy, I get it. I'm a villain, you're a hero. It's your job to catch me. B-but consider this." The teen began to piston his arms back and forth at the confused hero. "You're the number two guy, right? Which means you got a big reputation to uphold. And I'm warning you right now, if you fight me? You're a hundred-percent guaranteed to lose." Putting on a forced smile, Hikari shrugged his shoulder. "So come on, man. You can drop the fire barriers, I'll run away, we'll all get out of here looking on top. Well, mostly me, but still."

A moment passed between them. "You done?" Endeavor asked.

Hikari's arms dropped along with his forced smile. "Yeah, I gue- hey!"

A barrage of fire balls was sent in Hikari's direction, which he narrowly avoided by rolling to the side. It was when he touched down on the ground after dodging did he feel a warm sensation, and his crimson eyes widened when he saw the concrete under him begin to glow a red-orange color. He just barely managed to use his hands to spring-push his body away before a pillar of flame erupted from that spot.

"You don't seem to get it!" the number two hero shouted as Hikari continually used his hands and feet to dodge every part of the street where a pillar of fire emerged. "There is no situation where you make it out of here! You'd be best to surrender now!"

After the fifteenth pillar was created, Hikari slid to a stop, expecting another as he looked down. When he saw now glowing concrete to indicate this, he shot panicked eyes to the side. Two streams of fire, almost snake-like in their movement, were rapidly approaching him as the fire slithered over the street. He tried jumping away once they shot to his position, but to his shock they flew up from the ground they were on and reversed directions, hitting Hikari dead-on. His entire body was engulfed him flames for a solid five seconds before the two particular flames ceased.

It was a sight that made Endeavor grin, though when the two flames disappeared that grin disappeared. Hikari, for all intents in purposes, was completely fine except for the fact the top half of his prison jumpsuit had been completely burned away from the fiery assault. All that remained was a glistening, pale torso and crimson eyes that glared out at him from behind bangs of freely-flowing white hair.

 _"He can manipulate fire to a great degree as well as create it,"_ Hikari observed. _"Those pillars... he hasn't dismissed them, either. The fire barrier around us had only been getting bigger, and it feels like he's slowly increasing the temperature. So he can manipulate how hot the flames are, too. He's limiting my movement space while also trying to slowly wear me out."_ He had to fight from grinning. _"Good. Keep it up."_

"Hmph. You're a tough one to have come out of that unscathed." The fire hero held his hand out. A stream of fire began to condense around his closing fist. "Unfortunately for you, I aim to end this as quickly as possible."

What followed next was him making a shape with the fire he created. A javelin, to be exact. A mass of flames that was shaped exactly like a javelin. Hikari was given no time to even contemplate this before the fire javelin was thrown at him.

Hikari barely had any time to even yelp before he jumped to the side just as the javelin embed itself in the ground where he'd been standing.

 _"What the- fire isn't solid! How did it pierce through the ground like that!?"_ he thought as he stared at the javelin. _"Ugh, looks like he's not above grievously injuring me as long as he takes me in alive. Huh. Wait. I wonder if..."_

Flexing his right hand, Hikari held the appendage up to his face. Light began gather around him, and after a white flash an exact replica of the javelin Endeavor had thrown at him was grasped in his hand. Made of white light, of course.

Hikari's eyes jumped from the javelin to Endeavor three times before he threw it at the hero.

Endeavor's eyes widened, though he was fast enough to duck just as the spear went over his head. "Copying my moves, are you!?" he yelled. "Well, it's going to take more than that to- huh?"

Hikari was gone.

The hero blinked, looking left and right for any sign of the pale teenager. He'd even looked behind him, only to find no villain in sight. As if he'd just vanished.

"What's going on here?" Endeavor muttered. "I made the flames surrounding us too intense. He couldn't have just run right through them without getting scorched, even with that speed boost of his. Unless..." His eyes narrowed when some loose pebbles across from him were suddenly disturbed. "Could it be? It is!"

What Endeavor had referred to was the nearly invisible silhouette standing right across from him. A silhouette that completely resembled Hikari's shape. When the hero's teal eyes moved from the figure to the pillar of fire next to it and the clouds of smoke coming out from them, they widened in realization.

"I see now!" he exclaimed. "Your file on your Quirk didn't say you could use light to render yourself invisible! However-!" the flames around them grew even more intense. Blindingly so, causing the smoke billowing out of them to multiply. This made Hikari's silhouette even more visible. "The smoke coming from my fire is obscuring everything around you but your own body!"

"Heh heh." Faint chuckling was heard as white particles of light became visible. They flaked off the silhouette, having covered his whole body until Hikari was made visible. "Yeah. I can use light to cloak myself. Props for figuring that out." His breathing began to grow labored, and sweat was falling off him in copious amount. "Okay, I get it, you used smoke to flush me out. Think you- think you could turn it down a notch? It's, hah, starting to get a bit tough to breath."

"Is that so?" Instead of going down, the flames' intensity went even further. From the border surrounding them to the pillars of fire to the flames clinging to Endeavor himself. They were practically in a raging inferno. "I'll admit, most villains would have succumbed to his heat by now and passed out. I'll commend you for lasting this long."

"Hah... thanks, I... I guess..."

Flames began flaring up around Endeavor, and suddenly his face contorted to one of righteous anger. "But it all ends here!"

What followed next was a stream of fire sent towards Hikari's direction from Endeavor's body. The teen weakly held up a hand, light gather around his body before firing dozens of small beams to counteract the wave of fire. The two powers met in the space directly in the center of the two, coming into a deadlock between the thick fire wall and the beams.

"Hrn...!" Endeavor's face scrunched up. The fire stream began to grow smaller yet darker at the same time, and the concrete under it began to melt. "I won't let you win!"

 _"Just a bit more..."_ The beams around Hikari began to converge together to match the fire stream's growing strength. _"Come on... I can't lose here..."_

With a deafening roar, all the fire surrounding Endeavor was centralized to his hand. The concrete below the stream began to practically vaporize as the stream was turned into a thin, blue line of heat. From Hikari's end, the beams had all coalescence into one thin, incredibly powerful beam that still matched Endeavor's blue fire stream in strength. At the point the two powers met, a growing ball of pure energy began to expand outwards as the two beams began to to shift and become dim.

Before any of the two could act, the sphere exploded. Destruction and flames spread out all around, scorching everything from the streets themselves to any vehicles or structures within the border of flame Endeavor had created. Every surface within the border was glowing red-hot afterwards.

And through it all stood Endeavor, lightly panting but otherwise looking no worse for wear. There wasn't even a single scratch in his suit. He was, for all intents and purposed, unharmed.

"We damn near melted everything with that attack," he muttered. "With this much devastation... kid's strong, but his body likely isn't heat-resistant like mine is due to his Quirk." His eyes darted out to where his opponent had been standing. "He's probably suffering from third-degree burns or worse all across his body from that explosion. I need to take him into custody and to a hospital as soon as possible before-"

He saw something shift in the area where he was looking. His eyes nearly bugged out from his head when he saw it fully.

"Impossible..."

What Endeavor saw standing in the spot Hikari had stood in was, in fact, Hikari. He was not, however, covered in an horrendous burns or any other wounds. He was in the exact same state he'd been in before the attack that had obliterated the area around them.

Upon seeing this, the hero's eyes narrowed as he took a closer look at the boy's body. It was then he saw something just above the teen's skin: a clear, almost invisible layer of a glass-like substance with a barely-visible hexagonal pattern running through it. This material ran over the teen's entire body, from his skin to his head and over his hair. Almost like a suit.

"The file containing the details of my Quirk... is extremely outdated," Hikari began, voice completely calm. "It was made when I first received it at the age of four. It was only ever updated when I was incarcerated. It was especially never updated with the abilities I developed around my Quirk over time while in that isolation cell. The fact you didn't know I could use it to cloak myself only proves that fact."

"What have you done?" Endeavor demanded. "You couldn't have come out of a blast like that unscathed."

"Oh, but I did." Hikari gestured to himself. "You probably can't see it, but I'm surrounded in photons I used my Quirk to ultra-condense into a physical substance. Hardlight," he explained. "I wrapped it around my entire body like a shield. Extremely hardy and constantly repaired from all the light around us. It's been there since the beginning of the fight. I only dodged those flames from earlier to draw attention away from it as much as possible."

Endeavor scoffed. "Even so, all that jumping around you did only served to exhaust you. Though you're unharmed, you're so exhausted you can barely stand. A rookie mistake I'd expect from a inexperienced villain brat like yourself."

"Endeavor..." Hikari fixed his red eyes to the hero's teal. "That was the entire point."

The number one hero would have argued this point, but something happened that prevented him from doing such a thing. His breath hitched in his throat, and he found that it was growing harder to breath. At the same time, the flames all around them began to rapidly die down at a rate that they would be completely out in seconds. Hikari showed no reaction to these events.

"What...?" the flame hero gasped out, his fiery facial hair slowly disappearing while the flames around his costume died out. "What have you... done...!?" His eyes searched frantically, looking for something to justify the sudden weakness he was feeling. Through it all he found nothing while his throat only continued to tighten.

Hikari nodded his head to the side, and Endeavor followed. It was then he saw it: more of the hardlight substance. It was all around them, creating a dome that locked in both the hero and villain. And upon Endeavor looking closely, he saw that the dome's border began only about a meter outside of the fire border he had created.

"I sealed us in here with a dome of hardlight," Hikari said. "A _sealed_ dome. Nothing, not even air, can slip past it. I even made the effort of using hardlight to plug up the hole I made to get here." The white-haired teen pointed his index finger at the gasping hero. "Fire requires three things to exist: ignition heat, a fuel source, and oxygen. Your Quirk seems to negate the first two requirements, as is its nature, but the third one, oxygen... it still needs that, doesn't it?" He threw his arms to his sides. "All that fire you created, Endeavor, the fireballs, the pillars, that beam, even the border, it all kept consuming the limited amount of oxygen that was sealed in here with us. But you never realized this because you didn't know this was my ability. No, you only kept increasing the temperature of the flames and continually threw more and more fire at me to try and exhaust me to the point of unconsciousness, but all that did was work against you by burning through your oxygen supply faster.

"As for me..." Hikari pointed to his back. A tube of hardlight was extending from his own hardlight suit to the dome around them. "I made a ventilation tube in preparation for this. I can breath just fine in here. You, on the other hand... well. I can see you're already feeling the effects of oxygen deprivation."

Veins slowly began to grow along Endeavor's neck and face from both the increasing exertion to breath and from his anger. True anger, and not the fake anger he'd used in his earlier ploy. At this point he was on a single knee, loudly wheezing and blinking rapidly to fight off the growing darkness in his vision. Through it all, he still found the energy to bare his teeth in Hikari's direction.

"I told you. My victory was a hundred-percent guaranteed." White light began to swirl around Hikari's body. The sun shone down through the dome brightly on him. "You've lost, Endeavor, number two hero. You can't muster the power to create the smallest flame without oxygen, let alone breath. Me, well..." The light around Hikari began to flow freely off of him. They separated, condensing into thick tendrils of white light that were connected to Hikari's body. Endeavor's bugging eyes widened as the ends of the tendrils took shape. "I may as well have an _infinite amount_ of light at my disposal right now."

At the end of Hikari's explanation, the light that had bunched up and gathered around him had turned into arms. Large, very visible visible and prehensile arms of light that floated freely around Hikari and were connected to him. And at the end of the dozen of arms around him were tightly clenched fists.

Snapping his fingers, Hikari pointed directly at the number two hero. It was the only warning the hero received before one of the fists shot forwards and punched him right in the sternum.

Endeavor opened his mouth in a silent scream, blood splattering out. He was powerless to do anything as the force of the fist carried his weakening body all the way to the top of the dome, where he was flattened out against the hardlight. From began the barrage: all he light-comprised arms flew at Endeavor, pummeling his body and keeping him pinned in the air against the hardlight. Hundreds upon hundreds of blows rained down upon him in the short span of only a few seconds, at which point he'd already passed out halfway through. It was only when the dome behind Endeavor began to crack did the fists stop their punching, only to all gather together and combine into one, massive arm. With a final, mighty punch the number two hero was sent right through the dome's wall, spinning limply in the air as he crashed right into the nearest building.

The arm of light disappeared. At the same time, white cracks began to grow throughout the entirety of the dome until it shattered completely. Pieces of hardlight shining brighter than any snowflake rained down on the destroyed intersection, where Hikari stood basking in the fragments. A large portion fell on him, with his body practically glittering amidst the smoke and destruction.

But those who were watching, the heroes, the police, the media, and a few brave citizens, paid barely any attention to this. Their sole focus was on the building Endeavor's unconscious body had flew into.

"This can't be!"

"E-Endeavor!"

"Endeavor, noooo!"

"How!? How could...!? This isn't possible!"

"Somebody call an ambulance!"

"We need to evacuate everybody away from this area!"

"Endeavor..."

"Against a single villain... do we even... should we even try?"

"What kind of question is that!? We need to stop that villain before he gets any further!"

Hikari paid no attention to any of the words being spoken around him. When a sufficient amount of hardlight particles fell around him, he wave a hand dramatically in front of him. Not a moment passed before he was rendered invisible. Amidst the chaos of confused heroes and frightened citizens, he'd run. Past everybody who was either running away or looking for him, he'd run with nobody ever even noticing his invisible body.

Even once he'd run to the next block, he'd kept running. His entire body ached from exhaustion and he was breathing nearly as heavily as Endeavor had been at the end of their right, but he'd kept running. Even when his body began flickering between invisibility and invisibility due to his weakening state, he'd kept running. The fear of being captured by the other heroes was too great for him to stop.

 _"I put everything... into that fight..."_ he though as he doggedly dragged himself along. _"I can't... fight, not in- not like this. If they see me, catch me... they'll put me somewhere I'll never get out of. Not after this."_ Flashes of a person, someone with Hikari's face but with black hair and blue eyes, went through his mind. _"Kyomu... my brother... I can't let them catch me! I need to see you! I need to see you, Kyomu!"_

He had no way of knowing where he'd stumbled into, or why he had stumbled into this place for that matter. He only knew that in his exhaustion-addled mind, Hikari had been searching for the nearest place he could find for shelter. And so it was he'd stumbled into some place through an unlocked door. A small room with a shelf full of bottles, one that was poorly lit. There were two individuals, as well, though Hikari's vision was so blurred at this point he couldn't make them out. He knew one definitely wasn't human-shaped, though. More like a cloud than a person, or a mist.

These thoughts, however, were of no importance to Hikari. He'd fallen flat onto his stomach the moment he'd taken in his surroundings, and quickly he felt his bod shutting down.

"Please... don't... turn me in..." These were the last words Hikari uttered before everything went black.

* * *

 **12 hours later**

Night had fallen upon the city. Traffic the flow of citizens had returned to normal, though the number of patrolling heroes had been doubled. Despite their best effort, nobody had managed to catch the villain that landed the number two hero in the hospital along with a few other heroes shortly after escaping prison. The Villain of Light, Shinka Hikari.

That's what the media was calling him, anyways.

Where the white-hair teen had ended up was a bar. A place that sold alcoholic drinks, which, for obvious reasons, was a completely foreign concept to the Light-user. And to his complete surprise, the owner- a person whose Quirk made them a literal mass of black mist with solid and glowing yellow eyes who still managed to wear a suit and even pull the look off well- and another person hadn't turned him in. To the complete contrary, they had actually helped him. Given him a bed to rest in while hiding from the heroes and police, and they'd even given him some clothes.

This lead him here. Wearing all-white clothing while standing on the top of the bar he'd been rescued in, looking down forlornly at the streets below. The bar wasn't that high, and it was conveniently nestled between some buildings, so the view wasn't the greatest. The fresh, cool air was a welcome change, at the very least.

"Hey there," a scratchy voice greeted. Hikari turned his head halfway to greet the person who just now walked onto the roof. The second person who'd been in the bar and had rescued him, and whose clothing color was the complete opposite of Hikari's. Light-blue/gray hair flowed freely in the air as the person approached, red eyes similar to Hikari's own eyes staring straight at him. "Feeling better?"

He also had a severed hand clamped to the front of his face. Hikari felt very concerned over this one fact alone. That and the fact the man's skin looked so dry despite the fact he looked to be in his early twenties at the most.

"... Hey," Hikari greeted back, turning fully to the man and leaning against the guard rail. He stopped right in front of Hikari. "Still a bit sore. I'll get better in a bit. Thanks for the clothes and the whole not-sending-me-to-prison thing and everything," he said.

"Oh, sure. Sure. It was nothing." The man, Shigaraki if Hikari remembered correctly, waved him off. "I wasn't just going to let those heroes take you away. I'm a big fan of your work!"

"Is that so...?" Hikari's fingers began to tap lightly on the guard rail he leaned on. It was something about this man. His disposition. The pitch of his voice. That hand.

Something was wrong with him. Hikari couldn't place it, though.

"You don't have a clue! There I was that morning, watching the regular news when I hear about the prison break." Shigaraki shrugged his shoulders and stepped next to Hikari, leaning over the railing. "I read the casualty reports, I get a few laughs in, I get on with my day. Then a while later Kurogiri flags me down to come and watch the news again. Almost didn't- hate the news." He quickly stuck a finger out to Hikari. "But then! Oh, I what I would have given to have been there in person. To see someone like you, some random, escaped prisoner and a kid at that fight the number two hero like that... _humiliate_ him in front of the whole hero society..." he giggled. "It was almost... bliss. Yeah, bliss. It just felt so good seeing you do that to him."

"I take it you don't like heroes," Hikari said.

He could faintly see a cracked smile stretch across through the gaps of the hand's fingers. "I hate heroes," he corrected. "And seeing you singlehandedly take down a raid boss like that fire guy like he was nothing but a low-level mini-boss... it was beautiful." The euphoric shuddering going through Shigaraki's body stopped almost as soon as it began. "But you let him live," he sighed. "Why'd you go and do a thing like that? He was in a helpless KO state. You could have done it easily."

Hikari looked away. "I think I got enough heat on me without killing the number two hero. Pun not intended." He also didn't want to kill anybody, but this was left unsaid.

"Hah. You're funny." Shigaraki shrugged once more. "Anyways, I was beyond curious, so I did a bit of digging. Shinka Hikari." Something about this man saying his name set Hikari on edge. "Obviously, you got that Light Quirk. At the age of four, shortly after you obtained it, you spontaneously decided to go and use it to disintegrate your entire family with the only sole surviving relative being a brother. The reports say you confessed to it under the reason of you just not liking them." His own hand lifted up and scratched at the one grasping his face. "Killing your parents with your Quirk. I can... yeah."

Hikari remembered that confession all too well. It was the hardest lie he'd ever had to tell in his entire life. He would have done it a million times over to protect his brother.

"So after much deliberation, I made a decision. I don't normally like working with kids, but a player like you? A diamond in the rough? I can easily make that exception." Shigaraki slowly turned his head to Hikari's. "I want to officially extend to you an invitation to the League of Villains."

"... League of Villains." There was a pregnant beat between the both of them. "Is that like- like a band you got going on or something?"

"Nope. No band." The hand-faced man shook his head. "It's as it sounds. We're a group of villains who stand against everything the hero society represents."

Hikari blinked. _"What did I just walk into?"_

He stared hard at Shigaraki. Nothing about his demeanor told him that was lying. He was looking right at Hikari, almost expectantly, waiting for a response.

"You're serious," Hikari said.

"Deadly serious," Shigaraki agreed.

"League of Villains." Hikari waved a hand at the darkly-dressed man. "So just you and Smokey down there, that it?"

"Ah, well, we're working through some details, but... yeah. Pretty much. We're an up and coming organization, and I just started out. You're gonna have to cut me some slack," he said. "And I don't think you realize just how desperately I want you to join us, Shinka."

The white-haired teen swallowed. "I don't really think I have much to bring to the table," he apprehensively replied.

"Of course you do! With that power, that intellect... you'd be an amazing addition to the party," Shigaraki claimed. "And we really need you, too. The game's party is lacking as it is right now. Sure, we have the leader, we have a warper, we're working through on getting us some grunts and our strength-specced warrior is in the works somewhere else, but that's it. We don't have a healer, we don't have any thieves or anybody even specced in stealth..." He nodded his head to Hikari. "You, though. You'd make a fantastic black mage."

Half of the words and terms the man used were lost on Hikari. "Wouldn't I, uh... be a white mage?" He looked down at his clothing.

Shigaraki shook his head. "No, white mages deal with buffing the other party members and healing. Black mages specialize in the offensive spells." There was silence as the two blinked their red eyes at each other. "They're videogame terms. You're gonna wanna learn them if you're gonna be rolling with us."

"I haven't really touched a videogame in awhile."

This earned Shigaraki rolling his entire head. "You're missing out," he murmured before facing Hikari once more. "Come on! It'll be great. Think of it like getting revenge on all the heroes that took over a decade of your life away. Heroes like-" he dug around in his pockets and presented a photo to Hikari, "- him. This... _thing_."

Hikari leaned in to the photo. It was a picture of All Might, sure enough. All these years later and Hikari still managed to recognize the incredibly muscled, smiling hero.

"All Might. I want to kill All Might." Shigaraki placed all five of his fingers on the photo. Hikari's eyes widened when he saw the entire photo disintegrate in less than a second. "I hate him. I hate everything he stands for. Right now, that's the League of Villain's ultimate goal. Kill All Might."

"Riiiight..." Hikari really didn't want to be here right now. "Well I don't really wanna... do... that..." He shrunk back under Shigaraki's glare.

"Then what do you want?" he asked.

"... My brother," the white-clothed teen answered honestly. "Kyomu. I just want to see him again. Be with him. That's all I want."

"Well then I got bad news for you." Shigaraki stuck a thumb out to the streets behind him. "Right now your name is the one being plastered on all the major national news networks. You're the top most-wanted villain because of what you did to the prison and for taking out Endeavor like that. People are afraid of you. They're afraid of what you've done, and what you're capable of. You're already a villain!" He spread his arms wide. "I'm just offering you a place with other villains. A chance at making a difference."

"A difference?" Hikari questioned.

Once again, Shigaraki grinned behind his hand-mask. "Sure. Killing All Might? That's a short-term goal, though still our current objective. Afterwards, though? We're not just going to tear him down. We're tearing down his society, everything he built up. Everything will be different. I'm talking big time changes, too! not just the hero society, but society in general!" He leaned ever closer. "That brother of yours? You'll never have a peaceful life with him, not with how things are currently. With you being the country's most sought-after villain. Heroes would hound you with random invasions day in day out if you tried! You could even get your brother hurt! We win, though? We go and accomplish the League's goals and change it all?" He chuckled. "A quiet life with your brother starts looking possible. So what do you say?"

The words of Shigaraki had reached Hikari's ears very clearly. He didn't answer the man immediately, though he was deep in thought. So deep that his eyes were clouded over and his head hunched down in thinking. The darkly-dressed man noticed this, and stepped back to give the teen his space.

 _"Change society... kill All Might..."_ He repeated the words in his head over and over to gain as much clarity as possible. _"I don't want to kill people, but... but would that even make my situation any worse than what it is? People already think I'm a killer. Now they think I'm some kind of super-villain running amok._

 _"Society..."_ Hikari's grip on the guard rail tightened. _"Because of the rules set by society, I got sent to prison. A kid, forced to spend a decade of his life in that box... for what? Because of this country's Quirk-phobic laws? If I killed them with a normal way, a knife, poison, even a gun... would I have been sent to prison? No. I was so young that they likely would have been sent to a mental institution. But because I used my Quirk..._

 _"That female hero."_ Memories of the hero he'd punched flew into his mind. _"The laws haven't gotten any better. No, they're worse! I save the lives of two people, and the heroes want to drag me to the police for it! Would she have even bothered if I had just pulled them to the side normally? Or would that have still counted as a vigilante act?"_ Hikari grit his teeth. _"Quirks. Society says it's come so far in accepting them, but then things like this happen. Kids get sent to prison. Saviors are sent to jail. Because nobody can use their Quirk but people with special jobs... or heroes..._

 _"Heroes can use their Quirks all they want. They're heroes! They need them for their job! And nothing is going to change that, because heroes have been making not just this country but the world more and more peaceful from their influence. All Might especially..._

 _"Kyomu. Shigaraki's right. I can never be with you as long as I'm a villain. Just because of Quirk laws made by society. Because of heroes. It's all their fault. And alone, I... I can't do anything to help that, Kyomu. It doesn't matter how smart or how powerful I am. I'm a single person."_ He glanced at the man with the hand on his face. _"But Shigaraki... the League of Villains... I don't want to, but what other choice do I have? They're the only ones with a solution. They're my only chance at changing things so we can finally be together. Kyomu. I just want my brother back."_

"The hero society created the rules that made me what I am." Hikari's words stirred Shigaraki. "Their strict Quirk laws, their villain laws... and you know what, Shigaraki? They'll never go away. Because the peace made by the heroes and their society works too well. And if All Might is on the scene, forget about it. He's the perfect villain deterrent because he's the number one hero. He's so strong major villains will never do anything in fear of him. He's the linchpin that makes it so that those rules that condemned me and separated me from my brother will never change." Red eyes widened and a chapped smile began to form. "If he died, though... that would shake things up quite a bit. There would no longer be a linchpin to hold things together. And if the League does what you want, change things... then through those changes, I could possibly reverse my status. I could have somewhere to go. But above all that, I could have my brother back."

"So you mean...!?" Shigaraki asked, nearly shaking in excitement.

"Yeah. Yeah, why not?" Hikari stuck a hand out to Shigaraki. "I'll join the League of Villains."

His final decision. He was doing the right thing. He would do anything to get his brother back. So if society said he was a villain, he'd be one of the worst ones out there. All for his brother. All for Kyomu.

In his excitement, Shigaraki stared down at the offered hand. "You really want to shake my hand of all hands?" he asked in a bemused tone.

Remembering what the man had done to the photo, Hikari pulled his hand back quickly. "Ehhh, yeah. Good call." Chuckling nervously, he rubbed the back of his neck. "So. What's first?"

"What's first?" A broken laugh escaped Shigaraki's throat. "I already told you what's first, Shinka. What's first is us killing the Symbol of Peace, All Might."


	11. Chapter 11

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 11- Shock**

* * *

"Thank you! Have a nice day!"

Kyomu squinted his eyes.

First it had been with that robotic camera back at the assessment on the first day. Then there had been those paramedic little robots that had carried Midoriya away when he'd broken his arm in the faux fight. And now there were these things. Robots that served all the UA students their lunch in lieu of old-fashioned lunch ladies. Lunch robots. Lunchbots.

And Kyomu still had no idea how advanced they made the robots' AI and if they were, in fact, truly intelligent or just programmed to act so friendly and human-like towards him and all the other students.

"Hey, lemme ask you something." Kyomu leaned his body over his lunch tray to move closer to the robot. "You know that camera robot? Maybe he's a buddy of yours or something?" he asked. "It-it-it's just that I've never been anywhere in my entire life where they let robots do a bunch of the stuff you guys do and, well, I was just wondering... can you, like, think? Independently? Or did they just program your lines really cleverly to imitate normal human behavior?"

The lunchbot stared silently at him.

Kyomu frowned. It was staying silent on purpose and he just _knew_ it.

"I'm gonna get answers out of one of you one of these days even if I have to steal you out of a broom closet and interrogate you back home," Kyomu grumbled, snatching up his lunch tray and moving away from the lunch line.

It wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

Shaking the thoughts of the robots, Kyomu turned his attention towards the school's lunchroom as he made his way towards the table his entire class had claimed as their "lunch spot", a table that the more aggressive people in their class (Bakugo) had claimed as their own personal table. It was just fine for Kyomu as long as it meant he didn't have to hunt for a place to sit down and eat every day. To the other hundreds of students, not so much. Then again, almost every other UA student not in the hero course avoided the forty-two that were, in fact, in that course. And that was only concerning the first years.

Kyomu had grown worried over this, thinking they were afraid of them all or something, when Sen had pointed out that most students stuck to their own respective classes and cliques. The business students stuck with the business classes, the support classes stuck with those, and so on. Same applied to years. So, in a sense, class 1-A was their very own clique.

Kyomu'd never been in a clique before in his life.

He quickly found his table, all his class members seated in it. Some conversed with their fellow classmates, while others ate their food silently. Kyomu had chosen to sit near the far end of the table, looking down at his food as he poked at it with a plastic fork.

The UA food was, unsurprisingly, outstanding. Whether that was because the school shilled out an alarming amount of money on literally everything, including food and ingredients, or that the robots were incredibly good chefs, or both even, was a mystery. None of that really mattered to Kyomu. What did matter was that it was free for him on account of his living status. And good, free food was always welcomed.

Unfortunately, he was never in the mood to eat.

"Hey, your food's gonna get cold, Shinka." He looked to his side to the round-faced classmate that addressed him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, Uraraka." He'd had to memorize all the names of his classmates upon the insistence of Sen. A personal new event for Kyomu, considering he'd never actually liked any classmates of his before UA.

 _"You can't just keep remembering people by their Quirks,"_ he'd said, _"you need to socialize with them and get to know their names. You know. Like normal humans do."_

 _"Bakugo doesn't,"_ Kyomu had retorted. He didn't think the angry student had yet to call even one of them by their real name. It was usually just a nickname he made up for them. And most of the time it was a rude one.

 _"Yeah, well, you're not Bakugo, so get to learning."_

"What's this?" Kyomu nearly withered when Iida shifted his focus towards them. "Shinka, you have yet to touch any of your food. I need not remind you the importance of keeping up your nutritional upkeep for both your physical and mental health."

"There's not a lot to do when I'm not hungry, Iida," Kyomu muttered, continually jabbing his food.

"Oh? Did you eat something earlier already?"

Kyomu shook his head. "No, I haven't eaten in, like, two days."

Iida's jaw dropped a nearly comical distance. "What!? Why!?"

"I'm just not in the mood sometimes." He gave a shrug. "Look, really, it's fine. I feel normal. Stop worrying about it."

These words did not stop Iida from immediately snatching Kyomu's fork away from him, much to his protest. The tall student then proceeded to use it to scoop up a fork-full of Kyomu's own food and hold it in front of his own mouth. Kyomu gave the student a baffled look, and most of the rest of the class began staring.

"... Iida, if you really think I'm gonna let you feed me in front of everybody, I will banish your food from this dimension," Kyomu threatened.

"I am willing that take the brunt of that embarrassment as long as my fellow classmate receives their required nutrition!"

"Well, I'm not." Kyomu batted the fork away, which fell into a black portal that soon closed behind it. Iida's jaw dropped even lower. "But, uh, thanks. For caring."

He was hoping that would be the end of the conversation right there. Unfortunately, Midoriya decided to stick his head into the matter with a fork of his own.

"Shinka, eating is important," he said. "Please eat something."

Kyomu recoiled at the sight of the fork. "I absolutely refuse to touch something that's been in your mouth."

Midoriya balked. "It's a spare fork!"

This had sparked an argument between the three of them, Midoriya and Iida quietly shouting at Kyomu to the point of almost force-feeding him while Kyomu continued to quietly shout back at them while dodging forks with food on them that were aimed at his mouth. It was a display that, to Kyomu's chagrin, had attracted the attention of most of their other classmates. Some were snickering at them while others were shaking their heads at the sight, almost disappointed in the trio for what was happening. Fortunately, or unfortunately for anybody getting entertainment from the show, a voice rose up that ended it in an instant.

"Kyomu, eat your food," Sen ordered while eating his own meal.

The black-haired teen glanced over at him. "But-"

"Do it."

Kyomu pouted, but he did as he was told by grabbing the fork Midoriya offered to him while slowly shoveling the food in his mouth. The caused some relief to the two that had been trying their best to feed him, and it also gained some looks from others. Kyomu had just rolled his eyes. What was so strange at taking some advice from a friend?

"... Right." Kaminari, who had been sitting a few seat away, began to idly turn food over with his fork while looking at his phone. It was an act Kyomu noticed that about eighty percent of all UA students did in their spare time. "Anyways, you guys hear about that prison break that happened about an hour ago?"

"Prison break?" Jiro muttered through a mouthful of food. "What prison break?"

"Oh yeah, I heard about that!" Kirishima's head shot up from the resting position he'd taken on the lunch table. "Apparently this prison holding villains in a city over got devastated in some attack by one of the inmates and a few villains managed to escape. All the heroes in the city have been runnin' around looking for them."

 _"This food isn't too bad,"_ Kyomu thought to himself as he continued to eat. All talk about the prison break had flown right through his ears despite it being the new talk of the table. It was upon eating a bite of food did he realize how hungry he actually was- his stomach began rumbling nearly the instant he swallowed the food.

Midoriya began to shift uneasily in his seat. Not even this could drag Kyomu's attention away from the food. "A prison escape?" he whispered. "I hope nobody dangerous got out."

"Nah, I've been livestreaming the news off my phone for about a half hour now," Ashido announced. "There's been almost nothing but this one fight the news has been covering in the last few minutes." She waved her phone over in Todoroki's direction, whose focus up until this point had been entirely focused on food. "Hey, Todoroki! Your dad's on the news fighting one of the escaped villains!"

"Good for him," he mumbled, turning back to his food.

She smirked, turning back to her phone. A phone, Kyomu had noted, that had about a hundred too many rhinestones decorating the back along with a multitude of other accessories hanging off of it. The pink-skinned student's darkened eyes were following the events playing out on the screen closely before they widened.

"Oh... oh my god..." The hands gripping her phone began to shake. "T-Todoroki, your father...!"

"What?" The scarred student dropped his fork upon seeing Ashido's distressed face. "What's going on?"

Kyomu's eyes slowly followed the grouping classmates gathering around Ashido to observe her phone while other pulled out their own devices to watch the news. He noted that most of their expressions were going from shocked to grim- some even becoming frightened by what they were seeing. His eating slowed when he saw Koda, the shy student with the strange rock-shaped skin, began to nervously sweat and back away from Ashido's phone.

Midoriya, who was staring at the news of his own phone, began clenching his fists tightly. "I can't believe... there's no way! He's the number two hero! What kind of villain...!?"

"Dad..." There was some kind of look in Todoroki's eyes as he stood behind Ashido. It was very little concern though, much to Kyomu's surprise. More surprise than anything else. "I don't believe this."

A shining head hovered over Midoriya's shoulder as Sen glanced down at his phone, having abandoned his food like everybody else had done. He paled when he saw the footage. "Hey, Kyomu..." he muttered. To the black-haired teen's confusion, his other classmates were slowly starting to look over at him. "You, uh... you have any relatives?"

"..." Kyomu dropped his fork. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"He does." Midoriya gulped. "S-Shinka, I remember you had a brother. What... ever happened to your brother...?"

Kyomu felt his heart rate began to increase. "What's on that phone?" he demanded. He glanced at the other students, who were all throwing him concerned looks. Even Bakugo was giving him a surprised glare. "W-why are you all looking at me like that? Midoriya, what's going on with Endeavor?"

"Shinka, wait-!" Midoriya didn't have the time necessary to react as Kyomu snatched his phone away from his hands. "Shinka, it could be a mistake! I didn't mean to imply... oh..."

A flattened hand was risen up, silencing Midoriya as well as all other students as the table as they cautiously observed him. Even Sen had maintained his distance away from the black-haired teen as he gazed at the footage being displayed on the small screen he held.

They all began to grow concerned when Kyomu's blue irises began to shrink.

What was on the small screen was camera footage of a molten battlefield made out of a street intersection. Streets and sidewalks were completely melted, and around that devastation was a large, almost invisible dome of some energy that was rapidly becoming cracked. The cracking was likely due to the fact that the second strongest hero was being relentlessly pummeled against the dome by a number of white, glowing fists before they all gathered into one, giant hand and smashed Endeavor right through the dome and into a building. This wasn't what Kyomu was paying attention to.

Standing on the molten ground, shirtless and seemingly basking in the falling, shining particles of the dome, was a young man. A young man whose features were the exact same as Kyomu, with the exception being red eyes and white hair. They were features that Kyomu recognized immediately. That, and the white energy that was coalescing around him.

"Hikari?" he whispered. "Is that... it's..." The phone began to shake in his hands. "Midoriya, take your phone back. Take it."

"Shinka, are you-" Midoriya was interrupted when the device was thrown against his chest roughly. Little attention was paid to this, however, as Kyomu had shot up from his seat, hand clasped on his shaking head as he stepped away. "Shinka!?"

"I-I need to- I need a moment." Kyomu muttered, shaking his head. "I'll s-s-s-see you guys at class, I just- I-I-I need to- I need- brother..."

Anything else that came from Kyomu's mouth was interpreted by everybody present as nonsensical mumblings as he shuffled towards the doors leading out of the cafeteria. Some classmates were shouting after him while others were giving worrying looks, but it was unknown if the black-haired teen even heard these sounds let alone registered them. He simply stepped out of the room.

* * *

 _"What's not to like about it!? It's an amazing story about a super-cool guy fighting the forces of darkness with his super-cool buddies and their super-cool bus! What's cooler than that!?"_

 _"There's nothing wrong with us. At the very least, I know there's nothing wrong with you. And since we're the same, that means there's nothing wrong with me. So don't go thinking that, brother. You'll make me worried."_

 _"Kyomu. Don't be sorry."_

"All my fault, all my fault, all my fault..." Kyomu would be chewing the tips of his fingers straight off if he wasn't able to keep himself together enough to prevent him from mutilating himself. His eyes were still staring at the ground glazed over as he continued to aimlessly walk forwards, but he at least stopped himself from doing that. "Hikari, I didn't- I didn't mean for you to- why were you..."

So many thoughts were whirling through his head that he wasn't able to make any sense of it, resulting in his mind being a jumbled mess of words. Memories of conversations he and his brother had in their childhood. His own fragmented thoughts, of which he didn't even know what to do with. There were even flashes of the night, _that_ night, fading in an out of his vision.

He didn't know what to think.

"Ah, young Shinka!" Kyomu didn't even register the fact that All Might was walking right past him, smiling widely and waving at him. "Isn't it lunchtime right around now? What are you-?" His smile twitched. "Young Shinka?"

When Kyomu had passed All Might, he'd mumbled a series of words the hero hadn't been able to even pick up due to how jumped and quiet the words were. The young man seemed so detached to All Might's eyes that it seemed like he didn't even register the hero passing, and kept going in a straight line until he'd reached the bathrooms at the end of the hall. Bathrooms which he quickly entered, slamming the door behind him.

The smile on All Might fell. "Young Shinka...?"

* * *

His heart was beating too fast and he was breathing too rapidly. Kyomu was intelligent enough to realize this, and had tried his best to stifle his own breathing to try and normalize his rhythm. It didn't help an ounce no matter how much effort he put into it.

So he'd tried splashing cold water in his face. His hand had shakily turned on the cold water knob on the nearest sink and he'd immediately gone to throwing as much water on his face as possible to try and calm himself down. He'd blinked rapidly, wet hands still shaking as his face grew chilled from the water on his face.

He could have sworn that, for a few flashes while he was blinking, that the water covering his hands was blood. When he stepped back in shock, there were a couple of frames of sight he'd seen where the sinks in front of him were his parents bodies laying on the floor and slowly disintegrating. When he looked at the mirror in front of him, he didn't see himself, but his brother in handcuffs looking forlornly back at him.

"I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry, it's not my fault, I didn't want you to go away, I didn't, I swear I didn't..." He shook his head as well as his hands to get the water off of him, blinking more and more. The visions slowly receded. "I'm so sorry Hikari, I didn't want to go away, I'm sorry it was you, I didn't..."

Kyomu started to sigh in relief as his breathing began to normalize. His heart rate started to slow, and the shaking began to recede. He slowly shook his head, long hair covering his eyes as he slowly turned the sink off.

"Haven't... had one of those in a few years..." he mumbled as he turned the sink's handle. He'd accidentally turned it too far, and released it as the metal began to creak. "Ugh... what the hell? It's the second day." Groaning, he rubbed at his eyes. "No, it's... damn it, Hikari. Why are you- what are you doing going around fighting heroes? You- you escaped prison?" He looked up at the mirror. His own reflection stared back.

"You wouldn't even be there if it weren't for me..."

The door to the bathroom slowly opened. Repressing a groan, Kyomu turned his head towards the door, prepared to see another student or, even worse, one of his classmates stick their head in looking for him.

He did not expect to see All Might look in.

"Uh..." Kyomu wondered how he looked, sopping wet and disheveled as he was. He'd be embarrassed if he actually cared about his appearance. "Hey, All Might."

The door opened a bit more as more of All Might's body entered the bathroom. "Young Shinka, you're, um... in the wrong restroom."

"What?" Kyomu's eyes shot up to the top of the bathroom's door. To his surprise, the symbol for the female gender was above it instead of the male.

He'd accidentally entered the wrong bathroom.

 _"Ah man, that's embarrassing,"_ he internally groaned. _"It would have been really awkward if a girl was in here."_

"Young Shinka, is everything alright?" his hero teacher asked. "You look... you look unwell, to say the least."

"... Heh." Shaking his head, Kyomu let out a small laugh. "I... not really, All Might."

* * *

If there was one, singular good thing that came out of all of this, it was that Kyomu got to see what the inside of the teacher's lounge looked like. The one forbidden room in the entire school every single student, even the third years, were banned from ever entering. It was rumored that all the UA staff treated the room with a sort of reverence, not unlike a monk would treat a sacred shrine in their temple.

It wasn't that hard to imagine why. Kyomu imagined there was all kinds of stress teaching children how to become heroes while wielding various powers while also trying to keep up a teaching persona.

When All Might had shown him into the room, Kyomu had almost become excited at the prospects. The excitement wore down extremely fast when he saw the teacher's lounge was even more underwhelming than he'd expected it to be. The only exciting things in there was the TV and the coffee machine. Other than that it was just couches and couple of tables.

"So, young Shinka." All Might had seated Kyomu on a couch, whereas he'd sat down on a couch sat across the one Kyomu sat on so that he and the hero were face-to-face. "You seem very troubled by something," All Might noted. "Did something happen?"

Kyomu sighed. "I mean, my brother apparently broke out of prison and defeated Endeavor by punching him out," he muttered. "My day's been awesome otherwise."

All Might's whole body twitched. "Holy sh- I mean, that's terrible news." A bead of sweat ran down his face which he quickly wiped away. It was done in a movement so fast that the sweat evaporated before it even hit the ground. "Are you sure of this?"

"It's on the news and everybody's watching it on their phones," Kyomu said. "So yeah. Pretty sure."

With a disturbed mumbled, All Might dipped his head downwards. He could tell the number one hero was thinking something from how his brow was creased. "Taking down the number two hero is no small feat," he said. "If you were to tell me a large group of villains defeated him, or that a well-known and powerful villain managed to knock him out after making obsessive preparations for a fight, I wouldn't be surprised. Even the strongest of heroes aren't invincible, young Shinka. That even includes me."

Kyomu blinked. "But, uh... you've never lost a fight, All Might." Part of the reason he was the Symbol of Peace was because All Might had never lost to a villain. Doing so would have shattered any pretense of him being a symbol like that. It would tell villains that even somebody like All Might wasn't an infallible hero, and would enrouage more villains to commit villainous acts.

But he never did lose. It painted an extremely realistic picture of All Might being invincible.

 _"Then again..."_ Kyomu thought, looking down at his hand and flexing. _"He has... whatever his Quirk gives him, but not invincibility. He's as mortal as the rest of us. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe somebody out there had a Quirk that was just too incompatible for him. Hell... if I really wanted to, I could open a Void portal in his chest and pull his heart out behind his back."_

The teen quickly pushed that thought from his mind.

"I'm well aware that everybody has strengths and weaknesses to their own abilities, All Might. I'm not worried about Endeavor. I couldn't care less about that guy." Kyomu shook his head. "It's my brother."

"Bit harsh, don'tcha think?" All Might looked to the side upon seeing Kyomu's glare. "But, uh, yes. Your brother. Right." He coughed into a closed fist. "I... suppose you still have some bad memories about that night, huh? When your parents..."

Kyomu did have bad memories. They weren't the kind of memories All Might thought they were. Those thoughts were built on lies, after all.

"It's fine. I'm fine," Kyomu assured. "I just... I never really saw this coming, you know? I didn't expect... well, to be honest, even when we were kids I didn't know what to expect out of Hikari half the time." A single laugh escaped him. "It's good to know that Hikari is still a bit unpredictable after all this time."

All Might pursed his lips. "Young Shinka. What is your opinion over your brother?"

"... My opinion?" the teen repeated.

 _"He's the best brother in the world. He sacrificed himself for me. I'm the worst brother in the world for killing our family and lying to the police saying he did it without even knowing Hikari wanted to take the fall."_ Those were the words Kyomu wanted to say. They were his true feelings regarding his brother after all. He couldn't though. He could never tell anybody the truth, because then they would know it was actually him that did it. Hikari's sacrifice would have been made for nothing.

As for Kyomu? He could say goodbye to hero academy. And any other academy, for that matter. They'd probably lock him in prison for what he'd done. And considering that Hikari was going around beating famous heroes up now, Kyomu didn't think his incarceration would ever mean freedom for his brother.

He could never reveal the truth. Not ever. For his own sake, as well as his brother's.

"He killed our parents out of the blue the night he got his Quirk and I wound up an orphan," Kyomu muttered. "He was my favorite person in the whole world and he betrayed me in the worse way possible. You know what he said to me after I saw my mom and dad turn to nothing right in front of my eyes? What he said right after I asked why he did it?" He tilted his head up to look into the shadows covering All Might's eyes. "'They didn't mean anything, brother.'"

 _"I'm useless. The worst possible person. And I can never tell anybody why."_

"'Why would I care about them? Besides, it's my power. I can do whatever I want with it.'"

 _"I'm going to kill as many villains as I can with this power once I'm a hero. It's all their fault we ended up like this, Hikari. I don't care what the laws say. They're wrong. They're all wrong."_

"I see." All Might stroked his chin. "Those certainly are the words a villain would say."

 _"They're my words, All Might..."_

"And anybody who would murder their parents in such a fashion are nothing but cold-blooded killers," he continued. "A villain through and through. Somebody like that deserves to be locked up with the worst of them."

 _"These aren't the words I want to hear. You're talking about me."_ Kyomu gripped his school slacks roughly. _"It isn't even my fault. It was that villain's. But... but I..."_

"But you, young Shinka!" All Might placed his meaty hands on Kyomu's shoulders and lightly shook him. "Some people would be traumatized their whole lives over such a loss such as yours! But you! You pushed past all that for the sake of others! I've said it to you once and I'll say it again, young man! You have the makings of a true hero with your attitude." He leaned in closer to Kyomu's face, who was heavily frowning with his hair shadowing his eyes. "I'll let you in on a secret, young Shinka. The sacrifices you make to become a hero in service to heroes? That right there is what makes a true hero." He poked the teen in his chest, where his heart was beating. "Self sacrifice. That's the essence of a true hero. And it beats strongly within you, young Shinka."

 _"If that's true, then my brother is a bigger hero than I'll ever be. He gave up his freedom for mine. I'm using that opportunity to become a hero just to kill villains."_

"..." Kyomu slowly stood up from the couch. "Thanks, All Might," he said in a hollow tone of voice. "I gotta get back to class." His feet slowly shuffled towards the door. "Mr. Aizawa hates it when we're late. Says it paints a bad picture on our hero ethic."

"Of course!" The shine of All Might's teeth rivaled the sun itself as he turned around to give Kyomu a thumbs-up. "You can always count on me for assistance, young Shinka!"

Kyomu didn't reply, instead choosing to grasp the doorknob to the door leading out into the hallway.

"And young Shinka?"

If he didn't have enough restraint, Kyomu would have crushed the doorknob.

"Don't worry too much about your brother. I'm sure all the heroes are doing their best to capture him as soon as possible!" A loud laugh followed this. "He's a rookie villain with no experience and a stronger-than-average Quirk! Don't let the fact he defeated Endeavor discourage you from that! Ha-hah!"

"... See you later today, teach." Kyomu stepped out of the teacher's lounge before All Might could say anything else to make him feel ever worse than he already did. Afterwards he let out a drawn-out breath as he collapsed against the door.

Quite a feeling, hearing such inspiring words from the number one hero. Words that were meant to put Kyomu's mind at ease that actually had the effect of making him feel worse. It was like every word All Might had said had driven a red-hot knife right into his heart, and he had to force himself not to show any reaction to it.

He didn't blame him. He was just trying to help, even though he couldn't. Nobody could help Kyomu. Nobody could ever know the truth.

 _"Worst pep talk I've ever gotten..."_

* * *

The overall disposition of class 1-A, currently minus one member, was dour. Partly due to the fact a dangerous villain capable of defeating the number two hero was loose. Mostly because that villain was, evidently, the brother of one of their very own classmates.

The general take of this news varied widely throughout the whole class.

 _"Shinka... brothers with somebody like that? A villain that powerful?"_ Midoriya had been as shocked as everybody else had been. And he, like most other people, weren hunched over their desk in thought over it. _"He hasn't said a word about his brother since the exam to get into UA. But ten years ago, way back then... I barely remember anything from that time, but I can clearly remember his brother. He didn't seem like the sort of person that would turn into somebody like that. He and Shinka just looked so normal, I thought... what happened?"_

"Hey. Midoriya," called Sen. He wasn't faring much better, head resting in the crook oh his arm while his other hand was tapping his desk slowly. "You talked back there like you knew Kyomu had a brother. What's up with that?"

Midoriya gulped. Sen had been the most quiet out of all of them. It wasn't hard to see why; he was closer to Kyomu than anybody else in the class was. The fact he was the only one daring enough to use his first name said enough alone. Them being such close friends was obvious from the first day of school. He could see how Sen would be a bit offended upon seeing Midoriya have knowledge of a brother and Sen not.

"I-I saw them together. It was a long time ago. Ten years," Midoriya admitted. The rest of the class turned to him. "Kacchan was there, too. We both saw them."

"Tch. Don't drag me into this mess," Bakugo muttered. "But yeah, we saw 'em. White hair and all."

"Mm." Sen nodded his head. "Kyomu's never talked about him. I didn't even know the guy had a brother. He doesn't talk about anything regarding his personal life. Don't think I blame him for that anymore." He turned to Midoriya and Bakugo. "Did the guy seem like a villain to you?"

The rest of the class seemed just as interested as Sen was.

"No, he didn't." Midoriya shook his head. "I didn't get any kind of villainous vibe off of him, but, well, we were so young. A lot can happen given enough time."

Bakugo decided to throw his two cents in while shifting the feet he had planted on his desk. "He punched an acquaintance of mine," he added. "It was in self defense, but if you want an early indicator-"

"Nah, that ain't it." Sen shook his head. "I beat other kids up all the time as a kid. That's normal."

Sen received a great amounts of raised eyebrows as a result of this claim.

"What? People made fun of my baldness." This did nothing to assuage the looks thrown at him. "Kids do it all the time with weird-looking people! We're a minority!" He looked towards Tokoyami for help. "Tokoyami, come on, back me up. Don't tell me nobody ever made fun of your bird head as a kid."

He shook his head. "Not really, no."

If he had eyebrows, Sen would have risen both of them in shock. "Uh-uh-uh, Ashido! You're pink! I know somebody-"

"Nah, everybody was super cool with me." She flashed him a mocking smile, causing him to groan.

"Agh!" Sen's head hit the desk, but soon rose up to meet the eyes of the shyest student in class. "Koda, buddy, come on. Surely- oh, who am I kidding? Rock skin looks too cool to make fun of."

The rock-skinned student shied his face away from Sen and muttered something that was too low for any of the other students to actually hear.

"Aren't we getting a bit off topic?" Sero, the student with the oddly-shaped elbows, asked. "Weren't we talking about... you know?"

Somber looks once again returned to the class until Mineta raised a hand. "I mean we could just, you know... look it up?" he asked.

Sen moved his orange eyes towards him. "What?"

"Well, his brother was incarcerated in an official government prison, right? Which means records about that and his sentencing trial would be somewhere on the web. At the very least there should be a news article or something-"

"We won't be doing that," Sen stated. His head snapped towards some of the other students in the class who had dipped their heads in thought at Mineta's idea. "Kyomu's privacy is his business. If he wanted us knowing, he would have told us. It doesn't even have anything to do with us."

That was as far as anybody could get in the matter before the door to their homeroom opened. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't their teacher that had walked in but their missing classmate. Some tried to avoid his look while others seemed to ignore him entirely. A couple, namely Sen and Midoriya, cast worried glances over at him.

To their overwhelming surprise he seemed alright for the most part.

"Hey, guys. Aizawa not here yet?" Kyomu asked, hopping up and landing in his desk's seat in a sitting position while tilting his head back and lacing his fingers behind it.

If they all knew any better, they'd assume he was napping.

"Uh... no, class isn't for about five more minutes," Sen slowly said. "Kyomu, you, uh... you alright?"

"I don't have any reason to _not_ be alright," he answered, eyes still closed. "Why? Is there a reason I shouldn't be alright right now?"

Sen looked towards Midoriya, who shrugged his shoulders in confusion. Most of the rest of the class offered him the same look. "We all just kinda thought that, you know, with your brother and everything..." he hedged, rubbing the back of his neck. "Um... so your brother is a villain?"

"Evidently." Kyomu opened an eye to look at Sen. "So did somebody here Google my brother's name yet?"

The class shifted uncomfortably. "We decided not to out of respect for your privacy," Iida stated.

"Oh. Really?" Kyomu tilted his head back and looked at the tall student in surprise. "I would have done it in, like, two minutes if I were at the same end you all are in. You know I don't care, right?"

"... You don't?" eighty percent of the class intoned.

"I dunno, I feel like the whole 'my brother's a villain' thing and the backstory behind it'll be brought up a lot once I'm a hero and everything," Kyomu reasoned. "You know, especially since you can literally just look it up on the internet. So no point in trying to hide it." He shifted back to his original position. "But aaaaanyways, it isn't really that important. The breakout didn't even happen in this city and none of us are affected by it." He paused. "Except you, Todoroki. Sorry about my brother kicking your dad's ass on national television."

A low sighed followed by a rigid nod came from the scarred student. "My condolences for anything your brother might be putting you through," he said.

"Eh. 'S fine."

"That said," Todoroki continued, "your brother... how did he beat my father?"

"You saw the video. He choked him out in a dome." Kyomu scoffed. "He got that idea out of a manga we read once, by the way. Wasn't even original."

There were a couple snickers from a few students following this.

"He meant how the hell did your brother who's no older than us beat the number two hero?" snapped Bakugo from his side of the room. A few glared at him for his bluntness while others nodded slowly along to the question. It was, after all, a nearly unthinkable feat. There wasn't a single person in the entire class who could confidently say their skills and overall strength could compare to somebody of Endeavor's stature given their own age an inexperience.

Kyomu, however, was that confident. Though this was kept to himself.

"Oh." Kyomu looked up in thought. There were many possibilities that flashed into his mind. Hikari's enhanced was chief among them. The intelligence and overly strong power behind his Quirk that would bring also came to mind. It wasn't that hard for him personally to envision his brother coming up with a plan like that to nullify the powers of somebody whose Quirk exclusively relied of fire. He knew his brother enough to know he would do something like that.

In the end, he shrugged. "He's my brother. Of course he's that strong," he said. "Now quiet down, please. Class's starting."

As if one cue, the door to the homeroom opened once more with the teacher slowly walking in, looking tired as always, and the class decided to drop the matter at that sentence. Not all of these reasons were the same, as once in awhile during the teacher's lectures some glances were passed to the side at the black-haired student who seemed so bored and casual as he listened to the teacher.

Some looked at him out of worry.

Others glanced in curiosity.

A few glanced at him jut wondering how powerful he could truly be if his brother had managed to defeat Endeavor.

Others, who either respected his privacy or were more concerned with learning, which was a majority of the class, had lost focus on Kyomu and paid more attention to Aizawa as he taught.

Kyomu himself was just happy that the issue was put behind him.

* * *

 **36 hours later**

It was hard to describe the thing that was standing in front of him.

Large. Muscular, extremely so at that. Jet-black skin with tears along its body to show visible, red muscle, and a beak in place of a normal mouth. The most disturbing part of this humanoid... thing, however, was the top of its head. Its brain was completely exposed, and its eyes, one placed at each side of its brain, stared off in different directions, seemingly completely unfocused on anything in particular. There weren't any eyelids for them to use, so the creature could have been sleeping for all anybody knew.

Hikari, who was deeply disturbed by the creature, took a step back while glancing at Shigaraki, who sat on the regular bar stool he sat on while Kurogiri, the black mist-man, slowly cleaned a glass while looking at the creature.

"So this is your big strength-specced guy, huh?" Hikari mused as he poked one of its eyeballs with his index finger. It elicited no reaction. "You're saying this guy is as strong as All Might? Really?"

"Nomu there's been genetically altered to surpass All Might," Shigaraki corrected. "And by that, I mean beat him into a bloody smear on the ground."

"'Genetically altered' you say," Hikari mumbled. _"What kind of person is this mysterious benefactor helping Shigaraki that he can just make monsters out of the blue like this?"_

In his short time with the League of Villains, he'd learned very few things. This was attributed to the fact that he'd only recently joined and that the members were very few in number. So few, in fact, that the major members could all fit in the bar he was currently in. They were, in fact, all in that bar.

One thing he had learned, however, was that Shigaraki, while the leader of the League, was taking advice and receiving resources from somebody. "Sensei", he would call him, though what he looked like Hikari didn't have a clue. Whenever the two talked it was always with Sensei talking through a TV that displayed nothing but static. Hikari nothing more outside of that, other than that whoever this person was had an immense amount of influence. Enough to help organize a small army of villain grunts and give Shigaraki artificially created super humans at the very least.

Hikari remembered asking Kurogiri about the man behind the TV. Kurogiri, who he'd come to know as generally being a polite person if one of few words, had only one warning for him and that warning was to not under any circumstances try to dig into the identity of Sensei's identity. Shigaraki had expressed with him the same warning, saying that, as a member of the League, he would know when the time was appropriate.

The white-haired teen decided to take that message to heart.

"You sure this guy is all together up here?" Hikari asked as he continued to poke Nomu in his eyes and brain. "He's just kinda standing here."

Shigaraki waved a hand. "All his intelligence points got dumped and were put into strength and endurance so that he could keep up with All Might. He was designed to only take orders from me. Other than that, he's incapable of any independent thought."

"Mm-hm." Hikari looked down. "Why do his shorts need kneepads shaped like skulls, though?"

"Hey, those kneepads are cool," Shigaraki argued. "It fits the image he's made to look after. The Anti-Symbol of Peace. The one that'll kill the real Symbol of Peace with his bare hands."

Hikari personally had his doubts, but of Shigaraki sounded so confident in the work of his Sensei, he wouldn't be one to argue. It was his plan, after all. His Nomu. Hikari was just the enforcer meant to make the plan go smoothly.

Sitting down on a stool next to Shigaraki, Hikari propped his elbow on the bar while resting his head against his open palm. "So what exactly is the plan here?" he asked.

Smiling behind his hand, Shigaraki snapped his finger. "Kurogiri. Plan." Almost automatically, the mist man tossed a open folder on the bar in front of the two. "That right there is the plan."

The white-haired teen leaned forwards. On the left side of the folder was a roster of the class of heroes-in-training All Might, the newest addition to the UA staff, would be leading on a coming field trip. On the right side of the folder was the actual details for said trip. "The 'Unforeseen Simulation Joint', huh? Sounds... man, I don't even know what that sounds like. Do I even wanna know how you guys managed to get this folder?"

"Most likely not," Kurogiri's deep voice stated. "USJ is a facility used by UA to simulate various disaster situations to help better train their students in disaster-relief performance. Class 1-A of UA's hero course will be taking a field trip there tomorrow morning for the aforementioned disaster training. Among a few teachers leading the class will be All Might."

"And that's when we'll hit 'em," Shigaraki said, clapping his hands together. "Plan's simple: you, me, Nomu, and all the expendable low-level grunts will be warped in by Kurogiri around the same time the class arrives at USJ. Kurogiri'll warp all the students around at random places across USJ along with some of the grunts, and they'll take care of them there. The leftover grunts and Kurogiri'll take care the teachers and anybody that gets left out, and if any prove to be too troublesome me or Nomu'll step in. Once All Might enters the battle, Nomu will finish him off. Symbol of Peace dies, final mission cleared, game over."

"It's gonna be a short game if the first level's the final one," Hikari quipped as he glanced at the class roster. "There anything on the students' Quirks in this folder, or is it just pictures and names?"

"Regretfully, the later," Kurogiri informed. "This alone was extremely difficult to obtain. I'm afraid we know little to nothing about the students' actual abilities."

"Yeah, it was a real pain getting this alone after I broke that barrier down," Shigaraki added.

Hikari let out an unsatisfied hum. "On the bright side, I think we can guess what the invisible one can do." He shuffled the folder towards him. "So we're just gonna throw a bunch of unknowns around and hope that whatever group of grunts that fight them just happen to have Quirks that can overpower them? Hey, I don't see a problem with that plan."

This comment earned his a sideways glare from Shigaraki, as well as... some look from Kurogiri. What look that was, Hikari hadn't a clue. It was hard to make out any expression from a purple-black mist and a pair of solid yellow eyes.

 _"Give me whatever looks you want. It's still vital information for something like this,"_ Hikari thought as he looked back at the folder. _"Ah, well. No helping it, I guess. Besides, we have Nomu. We have me. Should be more than enough even if some complications arise. And maybe I can guess some of these students' Quirks from their picture like the invisible one and-"_

Hikari's breath caught in his throat when his eyes landed on a particular picture and name. Crimson eyes widened only to blink again and again to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. Even after he had confirmed this he turned the folder left, right, and upside-down just to make sure to himself that he was seeing the correct thing.

"Hey, Shigaraki..." he muttered, turning to his leader. "You bother to look at any of these pictures or read any of these names?"

He shook his head. "No. Why? Something the matter?"

"Ah, oh, nah, nothin'... nothing too big. You know. J-just that, uh, there's kind of somebody important on this class roster." He held up the folder to Shigaraki's face, pointing at one student portrait in particular. "You wanna tell me why my brother is on this roster?"

The older man blinked, tilting his head to the side as he stared directly at the picture. "Oh. Huh." If he was taken back at all by the news, he didn't show it. "Well that's a really weird coincidence, huh?"

Groaning, Hikari slammed the folder back down on the bar. "Agh! Kyomu, what the- why're you in hero school!?" He felt his head crash into his open hand in sheer disbelief.

He knew it was Kyomu, too. He didn't even need the name label to know he was looking at the face of his twin brother. It was notably different from how he remembered it from ten years ago, more thin, but it was definitely his brother. Which was a problem. Because it meant Hikari was about to attack his class.

"So your brother is in school to be a hero?" Kurogiri asked, picking up the folder to examine the photo. "Was that a dream of his?"

"No." Hikari shook his head. "In the entire time we were together, Kyomu and I never once expressed any desire to grow up to be a hero when we were older. Our mother was a hero. We saw how much stress that put on her every day, even if she always tried to hide it from us. If anything, we wanted to be anything _but_ heroes."

It was why this was so baffling to him. Why he almost couldn't believe he had seen that picture on that class roster. A class for heroes. Kyomu never wanted to be a hero. But ten years was ten years, and for a child ten years seemed longer than that. Hikari had no way of knowing what the even that changed their lives had done to his brother. How much it had changed him. Did it cause him to change his mind about becoming a hero? Did he have some goal that was born from that night?

He needed to know. And the only way he could get answers was by asking his brother directly. Fortunately or not, that opportunity was fast approaching.

"Hm..." Shigaraki began to lightly scratch at his neck, seemingly in thought. "Is this gonna be a problem?" he asked.

Hikari opened his mouth to answer, and then closed it. It was the wording of Shigaraki's question that causes a thought to pop into his head. A single thought that made him realize that, yes, Kyomu's presence in the attack would cause a problem. And not just because they were brothers.

 _"I don't know the mechanics behind his Quirk, but I saw what it could do up close and personal. How he can just make things... disappear like that in an instant."_ He'd had a front row seat to the showing of Kyomu's Quirk going wild. He'd erased an entire house and three bodies from existence never to be found again. And Hikari would be surprised to find that his brother had refined that ability over the years. In fact, that possibility was doubly true if he was attending a hero school in the effort to become a hero.

That meant problems for their plan.

 _"I doubt that Kyomu would go and kill the Nomu, especially if other students and teachers'll be around, but..."_ Hikari cast a glance at the creature who still stood with his back to the bar's wall. _"Even if that thing is as strong as All Might, Kyomu's Quirk isn't dependent on strength from what I saw. Much like how Shigaraki's Quirk can disintegrate anything, Kyomu's can make anything disappear. Out of all the students in that class, Kyomu is most likely the most dangerous one. He can hurt the Nomu. Easily. And if that happens in the fight with All Might, well, game over."_ He shuddered. _"Egh, Shigaraki's terminology is getting to me."_

The problem was that he couldn't even tell his fellow League members this information. As far as the system was concerned, Kyomu didn't have a Quirk before that night. It was part of why Hikari's lie had been so convincing. Kyomu had likely gotten it registered much later, after Hikari's trial and imprisonment. Which meant that, by all right, Hikari shouldn't have any knowledge about his brother's Quirk or what it did. Except he did.

Were the chances of them picking up on something that small large? Not very much so, no. He honestly doubted that something like that would cause enough suspicion to warrant any questioning on the subject from the League, but he was too careful to take a chance such as that. Not when it was his brother on the line.

The fact remained, however, that he had to take care of his brother before he could jeopardize the plan by harming the Nomu mid-fight.

"There's no problem," Hikari said in answer to Shigaraki's previous question. "Can you let me deal with him, though? Personally?" He turned his head to his leader, who shot him a questioning look. "I mean, come on, you already got Nomu back there and Kurogiri to back you up. All the grunts'll be dealing with the students. And Kyomu, well..." He shrugged his shoulder. "He _is_ my twin brother. You all saw how powerful my Quirk is. There's no reason to believe his isn't as strong. And believe me, he has the intellect to use it like I do, too. Guy like that could be a serious problem if you don't let me handle it."

There was a long moment where Shigaraki silently stared straight at Hikari. For a bit Hikari even began to grow nervous under the scrutiny, worrying that he'd said something too suspicious. To his relief, Shigaraki leaned back in his stool while casually throwing his hands to the side.

"Sure. Why not?" he turned to the suit-wearing mist. "Kurogiri. Make sure that you when we attack you warp Shinka and his brother somewhere private. Shinka, make sure you get close enough so that Kurogiri can do his job. Take care of your brother and make your way back to me afterwards."

"That's perfect, Shigaraki. Thank you." Relief for the moment flood through Hikari as he stood up from his stool. He had no idea what he was actually going to do once he got to his brother- the prospect of meeting him under these circumstances was nerve-wracking enough as it was- but it was a step forwards, and he had time to plan for something like that. So, with a heavy sigh, he turned to his fellow League members. "I'm gonna go out for some fresh air. Clear my head. Be back when I feel like it."

The two watched Hikari leave the bar silently, with Shigaraki waving him off. A few moments after the door closed behind Hikari and his footsteps quieted to nothing following his departure, Shigaraki let out a long groan while slamming his body on the bar.

"And here I thought things would be simple and I'd get a free and powerful black mage without any strings attached," he mumbled. "What do you think the odds are that Shinka's brother'd be in that class, Kurogiri?"

"It's not as unlikely as it seems." By this point the glass the mist-man had been cleaning had been replaced with another. "Perhaps what Shinka did to his parents awakened some ill-conceived sense of justice in his brother. Perhaps it's an outlet towards his feelings towards our comrade for what he's done. There's no telling what could be going through the young man's mind."

"I guess you got a point." Shigaraki idly reached up and stroked at the hand clamped to his face. "I wonder, if I had a brother, what'd he think about me for... hm." He grabbed at the folder. "Well, that's not important. Nomu."

The muscled creature let out a low, warbling sound as its unfocused eyes slid towards Shigaraki with a sickening, wet sound. The eyes moved from the man to the folder he was holding up to the creature, and then to the picture he was pointing at.

"See this kid right here?" Shigaraki asked, pointing to Kyomu's picture. "You can't touch him, alright? No matter what. Don't hurt him, don't kill him, don't do anything no matter what happens if you see him."

Nomu let out some inhuman grunt. Shigaraki took it as a form of acknowledgement and set the folder down.

"Shigaraki?" Kurogiri asked, fixing the man with a questioning look.

"If all goes according to plan and Shinka takes care of his brother, he shouldn't be a problem," he said. "I'm just making sure something ugly doesn't happen. Like Nomu twisting the kid's head off right in front of his brother." He leaned back, propping his elbows on the bar while glancing at Kurogiri from the side. "Shinka is too powerful of a piece for me to jeopardize losing, Kurogiri. And let's face it, he's only here because of his brother. Why he thinks his brother would ever want to live with the person who killed their parents, I have no idea, but that doesn't matter much. Shinka's a member of the League and he wants nothing more besides his brother than to help us accomplish our goals and kill All Might for his own personal reasons." He pointed a finger at the file. "That's all fine and well, but now we're faced with the problem of that one reason for him being here now being an annoying side objective to our mission. And this one isn't optional, either. If Nomu kills Shinka Kyomu, or any other League-affiliated member for that matter, and Shinka finds out- and he would- he'd not only lose the only reason for him being here, he'd likely turn against us."

The mist comprising Kurogiri gave a moment reminiscent of a nod. "He did defeat Endeavor all on his own, as well as incapacitate some minor heroes. And that was right after escaping a highly secure prison facility. Somebody as powerful as that having a personal grudge against the League would not be beneficial at all, especially at the stage we're in."

"'Not beneficial'?" A dry laugh escaped Shigaraki. "He'd probably kill us! Or try to, at least. But that's fine. Just means that one student out of twenty-two is untouchable. No big deal." He stood up from his bar stool. "Anyways, I'm going to sleep."

"So early?" Kurogiri reached for another glass. "It's only midnight."

"Hey, got a big day tomorrow," Shigaraki said as he reached for the door handle. "After all, we're killing All Might."

* * *

 **A/N- As far as I can understand, a lot of the names here get a 'u' after the 'o' in their names due to the way the anime's Japanese dubbing pronounces names, which, for some reason I'm not privy to, translates into the English subtitles and confuses everybody on how to spell characters' names. Bakugo turns to Bakugou, Koda to Kouda, Nomu to Noumu, so on and so forth. In English the extra 'u' is removed due to pronunciation. I very much doubt a Japanese person'll ever dub this story (but feel free to I guess if somebody out there is so inclined (never gonna happen but there's always that 0.1% chance)) and this story is written in English, so I ain't putting that 'u' there.**

 **Watch me be wrong about this and look really foolish, because I'm saying all this off of assumption. I'm pretty sure I'm right, though.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N- The original source material's pacing was a bit too fast for what I had in mind, so for this story's purpose I'm messing with the timeline a bit by spreading original events out a bit more.**

 **By that I mean USJ isn't happening this chapter.**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 12- Election**

* * *

Kyomu wasn't at the train station the next day.

This was a fact that, while slightly troubling, wasn't overly alarming to Sen. Despite riding the same train, the two had arrived on different times on the first day of school, with Kyomu arriving first. On the second day, Sen had stepped off of the train only to see Kyomu had been waiting for him on the train bench. He'd wanted to make a habit of walking to school together with Sen, something the bald teen had readily agreed to.

He wasn't waiting for him on the third day, though. Somehow, Sen wasn't surprised. Considering everything that had transpired yesterday.

Sen didn't know what to think about Kyomu's brother being a villain. Kyomu had seemed so disturbed when he heard the news of his brother's escape, only to come back to class completely fine. He'd seemed genuine, too. Genuine enough that Sen had no idea if he really was okay or not.

Things would be so much easier if he actually knew what the deal between the two brothers was.

"Eikyo?" Sen turned his head around upon taking two steps out of the train station. A pair of green eyes was looking up at him.

"Midoriya?" He looked past the teen's shoulder and at the train station. "How many people in our class ride that train? Sheesh."

Midoriya. One of the nicer people in the class. Sometimes too nice. Ironically, his Quirk reflected none of that personality. And he often put Sen and Kyomu off with that weird muttering he did from time to time. But, despite all that, he was a nice person at heart. Sen thought he was a good person. Kyomu had a similar view.

"Hey, Eikyo. On your way to school?" Midoriya asked as he caught up to Sen's side as the two turned to the direction of UA and began walking.

Sen frowned. "No, I'm at the train station near UA in my uniform with my book bag on a school day because I just felt like it." He glowered down at the shorter student. "What do you think I'm doing?"

"Eh-heh, uh... yeah..." Midoriya looked down. "Guess that was a pretty stupid question, huh?"

Rolling his eyes, Sen reached down and rubbed the top of the teen's hair, startling him. "Dude, I'm just messing with you," he said. "Geez, lighten up."

"Oh." He rubbed at the side of his head. "Right, sorry. I'm not used to things like that. And... I got a bit on my mind."

Sen could almost tell what those things on Midoriya's mind were based on the concerned look on his face. "Let me guess. Kyomu?" he asked.

Midoriya nodded. "I know Shinka deserves his privacy, but he said he didn't care if we looked up his brother's history. And he's right- hiding away from it and pretending it doesn't exist isn't going to help him, especially is he plans on being a renowned hero. It could actually be problematic towards him in the future if he ever tried to cover it up, but, well, I don't really think something like that would be possible at this point. So I got curious last night, and right before I went to bed, I... you know..."

"I see." Sen crossed his arms as the two continued to walk forwards. "How bad is it?"

Privacy was one thing, but Midoriya had a point. Information like that couldn't stay hidden, especially now. Doubtless the school knew it. It was almost a sure thing that most of their classmates had looked it up when they went home, especially if Midoriya of all people had done it. Sen didn't like being the only person in the dark when it concerned his friend.

Besides. It wasn't breaching privacy if Midoriya just told him, regardless if Sen asked or not.

"Ashido was right. There were a bunch of websites, mostly news articles, that went over Shinka Hikari's villain case. He was convicted when they were four. And the exact date it said the crime was committed..." Midoriya swallowed. "Eikyo, it was the same day I saw him. He didn't... Shinka Hikari seemed like a completely normal person, a bit cold maybe, but just as normal as our Shinka was. I wouldn't have believed you if you said that his brother would have done something like that the very night I met them."

A bead of sweat began to roll down Sen's face. "What'd he do?"

"He... killed their parents," Midoriya answered. "With his Quirk. What little information I pulled up said that the authorities found the Shinka brothers in a crater where their home used to be. Shinka Hikari admitted to using his Quirk to disintegrate their home and family. They were the only ones that survived." He looked down at his feet. "I think that might be why Shinka's never talked about his home life."

 _"His whole home just... gone? Because of his brother?"_ Sen felt his heart sink at the information. Both in anger at his friend's brother and out of sadness for said friend. Though rare, there were some stories that floated around of casualties in villain attacks. The numbers usually weren't that big, though, and usually it was a hero that was killed in duty. Half the time it was even an accident. But something like this was unheard of to Sen's ears. _"Oh, Kyomu..."_

"Gee, ya both look so down it's makin' me sad." Both Sen and Midoriya stood straight up when a pair of arms wrapper around their shoulders. Sen looked to the side and Midoriya looked up to seen Kyomu walking right behind them, eyes closed with a big grin on his face. "Something the matter?"

The two students immediately jumped away from the black-haired teen's grasp. "Kyomu!" Sen exclaimed. "You weren't at the station. I thought you weren't gonna show up today. What happened?"

The smile on Kyomu's face was replaced with a frown as he groaned, rubbing a hand across his face. "My alarm's super old. I think the thing's busted," he said. "Accidentally slept in because it didn't wake me up on time. Had to get real creative with my Quirk to get here. Think a hero chased me down screaming at me about unlawful Quirk usage or something dumb like that, but I shook him off. I'm just glad I'm not gonna be late for class. I got a perfect attendance record to keep up here."

"Heh heh. I don't think you can brag about something like that on the third day," Sen said, smiling. He was more happy just to see his friend arriving at school more than anything. _"He wasn't so shaken by the news of his brother that he stayed home. He just accidentally slept in. I... I'm glad you made it, Kyomu."_

Midoriya, on the other hand, didn't seem nearly as happy as Sen was. "You were traversing with your Quirk?" he asked. "And you evaded a hero?"

"Hey, forget that guy." Midoriya almost seemed offended by the way Kyomu had said that. "It's my power. I'll do whatever I want with it. What, are they gonna arrest me for using my arms to open a door?" He scoffed. "Those anti-Quirk laws are useless, anyways. And if a hero is really gonna go out of his way to track me down just to scold me, he either has nothing better to do with his time or he mentally defunct."

"Those laws are in place to protect the people, Shinka," Midoriya argued. "There's a lot of people who don't have a handle on Quirks that otherwise are dangerous to other people, even if the users don't mean to be threatening. That's why only heroes can use their Quirks, or people whose jobs allow them to use very specific kinds of Quirks-"

"Midoriya, it doesn't matter," Kyomu interrupted. "I'm here, nobody got hurt, forget about it. It's fine. Drop it."

There was still a slight, disapproving look in Midoriya's eyes, but Sen had soon diverged the conversation towards a different topic upon seeing the tension spreading between the two. The mood soon lightened to what it had been originally, with the three chatting merrily as they approached their school.

Sen was just happy his friend seemed to be back to his normal demeanor. What kind of normalcy applied to Kyomu was, admittedly, still a mystery to Sen, but he was familiar enough with Kyomu to tell when things were normal with him. This or whenever he caught Kyomu being lazy.

Soon, they saw the school just around the corner they rounded. And they saw more than that, much to Sen and Midoriya's surprise and Kyomu's disgruntlement. There was a hoard of people just outside the school. A hoard of people with a fleet of news vans with half the people in the crowd carrying large cameras. A very specific group of people that made the stomachs of the three students turn.

 _"Ugh. News people,"_ Sen thought. _"What are they doing here?"_

 _"Ugh. News people,"_ Kyomu thought. _"Some of the worst kind of people."_

 _"News people?"_ Midoriya put a hand to his chin. _"Did something happen?"_

The three of them slowly approached the crowd who were blocking the pathway to the entrance of the school, the new speed telling of the enthusiasm the trio was slowly losing. It made matters worse when they saw one of their other classmates standing in front of a newswoman questioning him. Iida. Who, like always, was chopping his arms in a robot-like manner. Sen always observed that Kyomu gained enjoyment out of seeing Iida's movements, for whatever reason.

He didn't seem very happy right now with the news people there, though.

"Iida," Kyomu called. The three stopped right behind the tall student, who turned around to face them mid-chop. The newswoman who had been questioning him had looked past his shoulder at the three. "Stop wasting your time with these people. We got class to get to."

There was a certain amount of disdain that Sen had picked up in Kyomu's tone. Not only that, but his blue eyes seemed to be glaring at the newswoman right behind Iida. It was almost like he was radiating hostility from just looking at the woman, and Sen found himself going back a step. Midoriya had flashed Kyomu a nervous look, and Iida seemed confused by Kyomu's statement.

"They were just asking me some questions about All Might being a teacher here," he said. "The media is extremely interested in our experience learning under the number one hero-"

"And that gives them a right to block the way to school?" Kyomu snapped. "We've got better things to do than entertain trash. Just leave 'em."

 _"Kyomu's laying it on kinda thick,"_ Sen noted, pocketing his hands and stepping closer to Midoriya. _"He's usually too quiet and lazy to act so irritated like this. The hell's his problem with these people?"_

It was obvious the newswoman holding a microphone didn't approve of Kyomu's tone. Even the cameraman next to her seemed put off by Kyomu. The teen didn't even flinched when the woman stepped past Iida stopped right in front of Kyomu.

"What's the big idea? We're just trying to-" Her eyes lit up when she got a better look at Kyomu's face. At the exact same time, Kyomu's eyes narrowed. "Hey, you look... are you the brother of that villain that escaped prison yesterday? The one that took out Endeavor?"

Kyomu didn't respond, though a scowl was slowly starting to spread along his face. The spread increased tenfold when the woman's microphone was held in front of his face and the camera turned towards him.

"It's very rare to get interviews from victims of villains alone, let alone relatives _and_ victims of villains! And to think you're going to a prestigious hero school like UA while your brother turned into a villain! The country wants to know! What are your thoughts on-"

"Keep pointing that camera at me and I'll snap my fingers and send your news van back there to Void," Kyomu threatened, voice noticeably heated as he glared at the woman. "Leave us alone. And let us go to class."

Iida balked. "Shinka! You can't threaten the media like that!"

"Camera ain't even on, I can see the unlit light from here. Vultures shouldn't be here to begin with anyways." Kyomu turned around before anybody could respond, heading towards the school entrance. "You guys do whatever you want, just don't be late for class."

The three students watched their fellow classmate storm off without another word. The news people, seemingly overly offended by Kyomu, had left the three, presumably to try and question any other student that happened to pass by.

After a moment of silence, Iida coughed. "Is Shinka doing okay?" he asked. "I realize this drama with his brother is more than a bit stressful for him, but that seemed out of character. He's usually so reserved."

"This is the same guy that I think is building up a conspiracy theory around the robots the school uses. You've all seen the way he looks at them," Sen said. "But yeah, I think he's a bit high-strung. Probably has some bad memories of the press hounding him about his brother way back when or something like that. I dunno." He looked up at Iida. "By the way, did you look up anything regarding him?"

Iida turned his head to the side, causing the sunlight to glint off his glasses. "I believe almost everyone in our class did," he muttered.

Sighing heavily, Sen rubbed the top of his smooth head. "I figured," he muttered. "Well, Kyomu doesn't look... super broken up about it or anything. Just don't mention it to him and he should be fine. I think."

The other two students nodded, with the three finally making their way towards the school.

* * *

Kyomu had breathed in a sigh of relief the second he walked into class.

Here, it was calm. No noisy people around him. No media to harass him. No whispers about his brother behind his back that he could clearly hear due to his hearing. Just teachers that put their education first and foremost and students who acted as professional as possible in a learning environment who didn't want to trouble Kyomu with it at all.

He sometimes felt like this classroom was the only place in the world he could find peace in.

"Morning, all." He'd given a cheerful wave to the class, with most returning nervous waves to him. He walked down a row of desks, smiling and giving his greetings to everybody he'd passed.

He stopped at one desk, looking down in slight concern when he saw a worksheet sitting on the middle, half-done. The student sitting at said desk was looking down at it in a fact that might have been concern. Or resignation. Hard to tell when he features were so stretched to the point she couldn't emote that much.

"Something the matter with your math homework, Tsuyu?" he asked. "You've yet to finish it."

The student with the Quirk that gave her frog-like abilities blinked her large eyes up at him. Asui Tsuyu. She insisted that everybody use her first name, for whatever reason. Kyomu didn't really much mind. She had a no-nonsense personality and, though blunt, was generally calming to be around.

"I was too busy last night to finish it," she croaked at him. "Parents were gone and I had to take care of my little sibling- er, uh..." She quickly turned her gaze away, letting out a small "ribbit".

"Oh, is that all?" The girl and some students around seemed surprised that the mention of siblings hadn't fazed Kyomu in the slightest. Instead, he'd bent down and picked the paper up, quickly inspecting it. "Well, you finished half of it at least. And you're right for the most part. Eh, just be a waste of time to fill the rest in. Here, gimme that."

He'd taken the pencil at the end of her desk without his permission while setting the paper down on the desk. In quick, fluid motions he'd scribbled out the answers to the math questions in less than ten seconds. After finishing the sheet and taking a second to admire the frog-like cap eraser atop Tsuyu's pencil, he gave it as well as the finished sheet back to the bewildered student.

"Uh... thanks, Shinka. Ribbit." She tentatively took the sheet from him and scanned it up and down. "Shouldn't you have used a calculator, though?"

"... You guys needed a calculator to do this?" He'd been given the same worksheet as the rest of his classmates had. They'd been simple enough algebra equations. He hadn't had any trouble doing them on the train ride back to the orphanage. "Eh, whatever."

He left the desk, doing more waving and greeting to anybody he crossed. It was right before he'd made it back to his own desk he'd come across another student that seemed to be in distress.

"Koda?" Possibly the shyest person in the whole school was hiding behind his large, rock-textured hands as Kyomu approached him. The same math worksheet Tsuyu has on her desk was sitting right in front of him. When Kyomu spun it around to actually read it, however, he was surprised to find that it was completely done. There was one wrong, but otherwise it looked good. "Hey, great job, Koda!"

The rocky student moved a hand away from his face to look at Kyomu with a single eye, and after one second of maintained eye contact he'd yelped and hid his face once more.

"That's no good. You're gonna be a hero, aren't you, Koda? You can't be hiding like this all the time. Media'll eatcha up." Softly, Kyomu had taken his own hands and gripped Koda's. He gingerly pressed downwards, causing the hands to lower and the teen's rocky face to be revealed. He seemed incredibly nervous until he saw Kyomu's smiling face. "See?" he giggled. "It's not so bad. You really don't have to be shy around us. We're all friends here." He glanced over at Bakugo, his smile turning into a smirk. "Well, _most_ of us at the very least."

"Hey, the hell is that supposed to mean!?" the blonde student screamed at him. "I can be plenty friendly if I wanna be!"

"Just kidding." Kyomu winked at Bakugo, who huffed and turned away. After giving a second wink to Koda, who had muttered something akin to a thanks to Kyomu, he'd finally moved to his own desk. He was almost instantly assaulted by locks of red and yellow hair once he sat down.

"Dude, you didn't tell us you were a math whiz," Kirishima said. "You, uh... mind checking out stuff, too?" He'd sent Kyomu a pleading look, along with Kaminari who seemed equally pleading.

Kyomu frowned. "There's a difference between knowing how to do it and letting somebody else finish the work and just doing it for somebody," he stated.

"We just want you to check it over," Kaminari assured. Two sheets of paper were thrust into the face of the black-haired student before he had a chance of refusing. "C'mon, help us out. This math stuff just isn't our forte."

"How'd you even pass the written exam if you need help with this stuff?" Kyomu mumbled, though he did give the two sheets of paper a quick once-over. "You barely passed. Congrats."

The two of them laughed, giving each other high-fives while congratulating one another.

"I was talking about Kirishima. Kaminari, you just barely failed. Fix some of those problems if you can before math period."

Kirishima was still elated by his success whereas Kaminari had promptly deflated. Regardless, the two of them had muttered their thanks to Kyomu and had moved back to their own desks just as the last three students entered the classroom.

"You're awfully chipper," Sen had noted the second he sat down at his own desk. "A welcome change to the dour Kyomu I saw outside."

"Mm? Was I really that bad?" Kyomu asked. He was confident he hadn't been overly negative, but if it was with the media, he wouldn't be too surprised if his attitude slipped up a tiny bit too much.

"You threatened to erase their news van," Sen deadpanned. "You were radiating so much hostility I almost thought that you were seriously gonna do it."

"I wasn't gonna actually go through with it." The door to their homeroom opened once more. "Oh, hey. Teach is here."

The entire class had quieted their conversations the moment their teacher had shuffled his way through the classroom door, dragging his yellow sleeping bag behind him. Eyes were still as dead as ever. He at least waited to crawl into his sleeping bag now instead of starting the day out in it.

In the three days Kyomu had come to know his teacher, he'd managed to develop a bizarre sort of respect for the man. Despite the fact Aizawa spoke with zero enthusiasm in his voice and spent half of his time sleeping and sucking the life out of juice pouches, he was legitimately a good teacher. It was a rare occurrence, but Kyomu had seen the way the man's eyes lit up whenever one of his students did well. His lessons were challenging by even Kyomu's standards but still educational. The man himself was stern but completely fair.

Kyomu would say Aizawa was a fantastic example of a teacher if it weren't for the fact he acted like he wished for death every waking moment. The teen was positive that was just Aizawa's default demeanor and not a sign of depression, but it was still enough to bring even his mood down on occasion.

"Alright." Aizawa stopped at his teacher's podium and faced the class. "Today we're going to be doing something a bit different."

The class around Kyomu held their breath. He didn't blame them. After the assessment he'd pulled on the first day, everybody was wary of any surprises their teacher had in store for them.

"You'll be deciding on a class representative."

The sighs that had resulted from the statement were almost comical to Kyomu.

There'd been many debates seconds afterwards about how it was that a class representative would be selected. Debates soon turned into full-blown arguments that filled the classroom with shouting, though to Kyomu's relief Iida had come to save the day with the idea of holding an election. Thankfully, everybody had agreed on the idea. Aizawa was fine as long as they all made up their minds before the period was over before retreating into the recesses of his sleeping bag.

"We gotta vote for somebody, huh?" Sen had muttered as he twirled a strip of paper, his "ballot", in his hand. "Gee, there's a lotta choices. Who you gonna vote for, Kyomu?"

"I dunno," Kyomu lethargically replied, head resting on his desk as he stared at his blank ballot. He hadn't put any thought into who he considered a good representative. There were a lot of good candidates, for sure, but who best? Surely not him. Class representative sounded like too much work and pressure for him to deal with. "Do you just want to take my ballot, Sen? You can have two votes then."

"I, uh... I don't think you're allowed to do that, Kyomu."

"Nobody has to know."

"But I would, Shinka!" Kyomu nearly shot up in his seat when he heard his name be called out. He turned around to see Iida pointing an accusing finger at him. "Foisting your ballot upon somebody else would skew the numbers and deprive you your right of input as to who is deserving of the spot of representative!"

 _"Narc,"_ Kyomu gloomily thought, though he did turn away towards his own ballot. _"Alright, who are we voting for?"_

Somebody to represent their class. A class of future heroes in a prestigious school who All Might himself taught in. Somebody who held all the values of a good, hard-working student and a future hero.

So definitely not Bakugo. He may have been strong, and deceptively intelligent, but Kyomu didn't think he wanted a class rep that screamed as his own class all the time. He already had that when Bakugo was a normal student.

Who was left? Midoriya? Maybe, if he wasn't so meek. Iida? Strong possibility. There were so many possibilities that he almost couldn't decided.

An idea suddenly popped into his head. Taking his pencil, Kyomu sat it on his desk and used his fingers to spin it. His eyes closely followed the point of the pencil as he held up his ballot with bated breath.

 _"Okay,"_ he thought, _"whoever it lands on will get my vote. No take bakes, no redoes. It goes to whoever the pencil points to."_

The pencil soon stopped. When Kyomu traced the point of the writing tool to the nearest student, he'd felt his heart jump when he saw it land on Mineta of all people.

 _"... Congratulations, Sen. You get my vote."_

The votes had been written, they'd been collected, and the results had been posted on the board. Midoriya had won by a landslide with five votes, a fact that seemed to have brought Iida much pride and disappointment at the same time. Yaoyorozu, with equal amounts of disappointment, had been made the vice-rep for getting second place. Sen and Kyomu, oddly enough, had received two votes a piece.

"Aw, Sen. You voted for me?" Kyomu's tone sounded touched by the gesture. "That was so nice of you."

"What?" Sen blinked in surprise. "No, I voted for myself."

Kyomu's grateful smile fell. "Iida, is it too late to change our votes?"

"All votes are final!" Iida replied. The shakiness in his voice indicated he wasn't quite over losing the election.

"Damn. Sen, I need you to know that I now mentally didn't vote for you."

"... And this changes what?"

"Absolutely nothing," Kyomu sighed, looking up at their new representative. "Shoulda voted for Mineta like the pencil said."

* * *

"Hey, it's me. Again. I'm sorry for snapping at you like I did yesterday. That was uncalled for," Kyomu said. "I... can you just give me a straight answer here, man? You don't even have to say anything. Just nod your head, just move a limb, something! Anything! I'm not asking you to demonstrate your ability to comprehend a higher plane of thinking here, I'm just asking you to give me some sign that you're the least bit intelligent!"

The lunchbot stared back at Kyomu silently, motionless in its metal carapace. The students in line behind him were giving him an odd look.

"You can't keep this up forever. I will find my answer." It was more than a promise, too. It was a guarantee. An assurance that one day Kyomu would drag the secrets of these robots to the light and find out once and for all just how far their programming ran.

But right now he was too hungry.

Lunch, as always, was good. The class 1-A table was, as always, chatty. And thankfully on this day there wasn't any life-shaking news popping up on people's phones.

There were alarms blaring throughout the entire school, of course, but seeing as it didn't pertain to Kyomu in particular, he paid it no mind and continued to eat.

"That's the school intruder alarms!" Midoriya had shouted, bolting up from his seat. "Somebody's broken into the school!"

 _"I wonder where they get the watermelons they served us,"_ Kyomu wondered as he ate a spoonful of the aforementioned fruit. _"Tastes too fresh to have been bought from a supermart. Maybe from a local produce vendor? I doubt the school has its own garden. Unless they do? Wouldn't surprise me since they have robots. They'd probably use them as farmbots or something if that were the case."_

As Kyomu contemplated the origins of his food, students were pouring out of the cafeteria in panic at the alarms. It was such a rush that the hallway leading out was completely clogged in students, and some were even being trampled over. None of this bore as much significance to Kyomu as the watermelon sitting on his tray.

 _"Wonder what we'll do in our hero class today? Yesterday was thankfully just a bunch of practical theory talk. Maybe All Might plans on rotating between practical classes and academic classes. Or maybe he's just making all this up as he goes. I see him pull out that teacher's guide when he thinks nobody's looking."_ Kyomu paused. _"Nah, no way. UA wouldn't hire a teacher that doesn't have a teaching plan."_

"Kyomu?" Sen calling his name stirred the teen from his thoughts, causing him to look up from his watermelon at his concerned friend. "You, uh... you coming or what? School's under attack or something."

The black-haired teen slowly swiveled his head to the pile of students clogging the exits. "I ain't going into that mess," he said. "And I can see what the issue is by looking through the window. Friggin' media busted in here somehow. Look."

Sen followed Sen's finger towards the cafeteria windows. A sea of media people had stormed through the school gates and onto school grounds; how this was done, Kyomu hadn't a clue. The school was supposed to be surrounded by barriers if somebody without a student ID or staff badge.

Fortunately, it seemed that two of their teachers, Aizawa and Present Mic, were already out there telling the press off and getting them to vacate school grounds.

"How'd they even get in?" Kyomu had muttered, thinking on UA's security system. "Pretty sure a press badge doesn't get by the sensors around everywhere that scans for our IDs."

"Who knows?" Sen shrugged. "Maybe there was a faulty wire in the sensor or something."

Kyomu hummed. "Doubt it," he said, "but whatever, not our problem." He leaned back in his chair, glancing around at the empty tables around them. "Wanna snag as much extra food as we can before everybody comes back from the false alarm?"

Sen grinned. "You grab all the juice boxes and snacks and I'll store them all in our bags."

"Sounds like a plan, let's hurry."

* * *

Life after the Great UA Scare, as the student populace liked to call the event, went on as normal that day. Or as Kyomu liked to call it, the Great Juice Heist. He'd stuffed as many unopened lunch juice boxes as he could with Sen's help when all the students had fled during the false alarm. Sen had made off with all the snacks.

 _"This stuff ain't half bad,"_ Kyomu thought, sucking the contents out of one of many stolen juice boxes as he gazed out the window of the train carrying him back to the orphanage. _"No wonder Aizawa drinks this stuff all the time. Super tangy."_

In truth, he'd maybe taken a bit too many juice boxes. Two hundred was almost way too many for himself. He'd eventually figured that he'd just give them all to the other orphans back at home. A little surprise treat for them in honor of nothing in particular other than Kyomu taking advantage of an opportune moment.

Midoriya probably would have had an aneurysm if he found out Kyomu stole all that juice.

 _"Heh. Midoriya."_ Kyomu tossed the now-empty juice box in a Void portal. _"I don't really blame him for signing over the position of class rep to Iida. Apparently the guy managed to calm everyone down during the false alarm. Probably would have done the same thing."_

No, in fact, he knew he would have done the same thing. If he'd actually won he would have passed it of to Iida immediately. Too much responsibility.

The interior of the train began to turn orange as the sun began its descent. It was a calming sense for Kyomu. It turned orange every time he came home from UA, and while he was still getting used to riding a train all the time, he welcomed the change in color. It was a sign of normalcy. A routine he was slowly and happily sinking into. Going back to the orphanage. Telling the children there all about his day. Going back to UA the very next day.

He liked UA. He liked his teachers, his classes. He was even friends with most of his classmates. And they actually liked him back- they smiled and chatted with him happily. He loved every second of it. Even if it couldn't compare to the time he had with his brother, it was... it filled the void his absence had left.

He was almost upset at the fact it would only last three years.

 _"Mm."_ Thoughts of his brother caused Kyomu to frown. _"Hikari. I wonder what you're doing right now. Did a hero already catch you?"_ He shook his head. _"No, probably not. You're my brother, after all. I just hope you're safe, wherever you are."_

* * *

 _"Kyomu. What am I supposed to do with you?"_

If one were to look up at the nighttime sky in this part of the city, they'd be lucky to see one star. There were enough lights in the district Kurogiri's bar sat in alone to light up the sky. He'd yet to go back down to the bar since the revelation of his brother being in the class they were attacking tomorrow hit him.

He exhaled slowly, watching his breath waft away and dissipate in the air in front of him.

 _"There's no telling what Kyomu'll do once I separate him from the rest of his class,"_ Hikari thought. _"Will he fight back? Probably. Maybe if I try really hard I can get him to back down, but... I doubt he would do something like that. Or maybe he would, since I'm his brother? I haven't seen him in ten years. I don't even know what he's like."_

There'd been something in Kyomu's file picture that had disturbed Hikari. Mainly, his eyes. They weren't the bright eyes he'd known at childhood whenever he'd been with his brother. The same eyes, for sure, but something had been off. Different. Not something overt like discoloration or dark rings around his eyes, but something subtler. The eyes gave off a different impression than what Hikari remembered them to give off. Whether if was different for better or worse, he couldn't say.

He supposed he would find out tomorrow.

 _"Maybe I could even convince him to leave that hero school and join the League,"_ Hikari mused. He nearly laughed out loud at the absurdity of the idea. _"Oh, yeah, that'd just solve all my problems, now, wouldn't it? But something like that would be miraculous, and miracles haven't really been treating me well. So, worst case scenario... he'll fight me."_ Hikari looked at his right hand, a ball of light floating through the gaps of his fingers. _"I don't know how our Quirks will match up, but... I'll have to incapacitate him at the very least if it comes that far. And if that happens..."_ He sighed, closing his fist. _"Kyomu, please don't do anything foolish tomorrow. For the sake of both of us."_

* * *

 **A/N- This is probably the most filler-esque chapter I'll ever make for this story, and for that, I'm sorry. I try not to write anything purely for the sake of padding, but I wanted to get the whole election thing out of the way. And like I said up top, I spread things about a bit more than normal: there was a normal school day between the first day and the class election, and the field trip happens a day after the election as opposed to the same day. The time jumped a bit between the Kyomu and Hikari over the course of this chapter and the last, too, though this will be something I will try to avoid for the future.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 13- USJ attack**

* * *

Throughout Kyomu's entire school career, there had been approximately one single time his class had ever been on a field trip. Second year in middle school. It wasn't even anywhere one would expect a field trip to take place, say a museum. Even a bog standard trip as that was too rich for that school's almost non-existent budget.

No, that trip had a simple "educational historic trip" that mainly involved a sightseeing tour around a popular district the next city over. Even had one of those large tourist buses that the entire class had to cram into. Coincidentally enough that was the same day a villain decided to try and rob a jewelry store, and even more coincidentally their bus had rounded the corner of said store while said villain was in the progress of fighting a hero that had arrived on scene. A hero who, as was noted by Kyomu while eating a banana and idly watching the fight from atop the bus, was incredibly under equipped to deal with a villain that could spit shards of molten metal while the hero herself could manipulate earth just well enough to make a dirt shield. A dirt shield the villain had torn through in approximately twelve nano-seconds before tearing her to pieces with his Quirk. Some of those shards, by mere happenstance, had hit the bus. One had even hit a child sitting next to Kyomu and obliterated his face, killing him instantly.

Kyomu, nonplussed, had kept eating the banana.

The hero, fortunately enough, had a partner who actually had a Quirk that could be used to stop the villain, who was stopped after being bludgeoned within a centimeter of his life by the male hero who had looked incredibly distraught over the death of the first hero. School was canceled for an entire week afterwards and Kyomu had never even heard of that kid's name ever again, though it wasn't like he tried that hard to memorize him. The fact nobody even remembered a month later clued him in to the fact the school never had any more field trips because of a tight budget and not because a student got his face annihilated by a rampaging villain.

UA, conversely, had them going on a field trip on day four of their first semester there.

Now, granted, this was a field trip to a UA-owned facility for the express purpose of rescue-training in various artificially-created disaster zones to simulate rescuing civilians in disaster because, in a pragmatic sense, that was part of the _job_. And Kyomu could respect that enough, and was glad that if the school was going to shell out the seemingly bottomless amounts of money it had, it was going towards something worthwhile and useful like training them for skills they would use as heroes.

Even if the idea of the school having enough money to own a facility like that made Kyomu's stomach turn.

"Ah man, look at Iida. Livin' up the the class rep name," Kyomu said, dusting off his costume's duster. They'd all been given the option of wearing their costumes, which, of course, everybody had taken. Except for Midoriya, whose homemade costume had been destroyed by Bakugo in day one's combat exercise.

Kyomu would have told Midoriya "I told you so" if the fight hadn't ended with him breaking his arm with his own Quirk.

Sen looked over to where Kyomu was looking, huffing out a single laugh when he tried to direct their classmates into entering the bus in an orderly fashion. He was utterly ignored by everybody. "I mean at least he's trying," he said. "It's more than nothing."

"I guess." Kyomu pocketed his hands and approached the bus, Sen in tow. "Geez, even the bus is high-quality. It's one of the ones with the wide interior that has the weird benches instead of normal bus seats."

Everybody had ignored Iida's seating instructions in the same degree as they'd ignored his entering instructions, with everybody sitting down wherever they pleased. Sen and Kyomu, of course, had found a bench spot with enough room for them to sit next to each other. The bust had begun its voyage to the training facility, and already the class was chatting animatedly among themselves.

"Hey, look." Sen pointed towards the other end of the bus. "Midoriya got a seat next to Tsuyu. Man, if it weren't for the whole frog thing Tsu has, they'd almost be twins with the green hair thing."

Kyomu looked at the two, and then at Midoriya's hair. "Is it green, though?" he asked. "Because, like... I'm not sure if it's black hair with green highlights or if he's just got a really dark shade of green to his hair."

"Who knows, man?" Sen shrugged. "At least with Tsu it's obvious her hair is green."

"Yeah. So she has those frog-like features 'cause of her Quirk, right?"

"Mm-hm, her frog Quirk. She calls it Frog."

Kyomu rolled his eyes. "About as original as Atomic Karate."

"Oh yeah, because Void if real imaginative there, buddy" Sen snapped. "'Ooh, look at me, I'm Kyomu, I'm so creative with names, I'm gonna name the power that's stuck to me for the rest of my life with the first name I come up with.'"

It wasn't even the fact that Sen had mimicked his voice that upset Kyomu. It was the fact he'd done it so well that caused him to frown. That and his jab at his Quirk's name.

"It's not my fault the Quirk Registration Office doesn't let you change the name of your Quirk," Kyomu said. "It's easier to legally change your name than to change your Quirk's name, I swear. Probably the reason why almost every Quirk name I hear sounds like it was made up by a four year-old. Because almost all of them are named by four year-olds."

Sen chuckled. "Yeah, I hear ya. That's why I actually waited on naming my Quirk." He looked back at Tsuyu. "So if she can do everything a frog can, you think she can, like, secrete poison out of her skin? Like those South American dart frogs? Or spit her stomach out?"

Kyomu groaned. "I didn't need that image in my head, dude." Try as he might, he couldn't rub the very unpleasant image that description had conjured from his mind.

"Heh heh, suffer."

And suffer Kyomu did with the image of a small teenager vomiting her own stomach up, only to soon swallow it back in. Why any organic creature in the world needed such a function, he would never know. Nor did he want to know, as he was sure that information would only invite new horrors into his mind.

Trying to find some way of distracting himself, Kyomu turned his head up front, to the driver's seat of the bus. Aizawa was, of course, driving. What drew his attention was the yellow sleeping bag right next to the driver's seat.

"Hey, dude." Kyomu elbowed his friend to draw his attention. "Dude, look. Aizawa brought his sleeping bag."

"He carry's that thing everywhere. Like he's afraid he'll spontaneously develop narcolepsy."

"Pretty sure he'd prefer that to his dry eye condition seeing as he needs his eyeballs for his Erasure Quirk to work." Kyomu looked closer at the sleeping back. Within the dark openings of the top of the bag he saw a glistening material, and then realized he was looking at a small pile of juice pouches. How big that pile was, Kyomu had no way of telling. It was too dark to see that far into the bag. "Wow, he just stores those juice pouches in there, too."

"Man, and those are Capri Suns!" Sen marveled, leaning over Kyomu's lap to get a better look. "That's, like, top-tier in the portable juice market! He ain't even skimping on his hydration."

"As to be expected of a teacher of his caliber," Kyomu said. "How many juice pouches you think are in there? Ten? Twenty? A hundred?"

Sen shook his head. "That's a question we'll never get an answer to, man. The teacher is almost always sucking one of those things dry." He tilted his head to the side. "What flavor you think he prefers? Banana? You'd think it'd be banana what with his sleeping bag and all."

Kyomu looked at Sen in surprise. "Really? I would have thought it'd be grape, what with all the black he wears."

"Heh. Grape. Yeah." Curiously, Sen's head turned back, his eyes darting to the shortest student in class before going back to Kyomu. "Dude, I'm not gonna lie. I haven't been able to eat any grapes or any grape-flavored products because of Mineta. It's bugging the hell out of me."

For the life if Kyomu, he could figure out just what Sen had meant by that statement. He made this confusion visible by arcing an eyebrow at the bald teen.

"It's because his head looks like a cluster of grapes," Sen explained. "And now every time I reach for something that looks like a grape, I just- I just see his face there. Staring. Mocking. And the thing you said about his costume making him look like he's wearing a diaper did nothing to help."

Nodding in understanding, Kyomu peered past Sen's shoulder at the small teen. He could see how his head would remind anybody of grapes. "You think those balls of his taste like grape?" he asked.

"... I just- why? Kyomu, _why_?"

"I dunno. Just curious. You think if we ask he'll give us one to experiment with?"

"This conversation never happened." Sen turned away. "I'm gonna spend the rest of the ride in silence, I'm gonna pretend you didn't phrase the question like that, and I'm gonna pretend the conversation ended on the topic of Capri Sun flavors. Good day. Wake me up when we get to USJ."

And like that, Sen had turned over and closed his eyes. Kyomu had simply huffed, crossing his arms as he observed the rest of his classmates. Five minutes later he, too, fell asleep. The next thing he knew somebody was shaking him and Sen awake when the bus had arrived at its destination. Unfortunately for Sen, that person had been Mineta. And what he had been dreaming about was anybody's guess, as he had screamed upon seeing Mineta's face. This and Kyomu's howls of laughter left many a classmate and even their teacher confused as they walked into the large, domed Unforeseen Simulation Joint.

* * *

"Everyone, I have been waiting for you."

Thirteen was a strange hero to Kyomu's eyes. A hero and staff member of UA, he'd been the one to greet the class once they entered USJ. Nobody knew what he looked like on account of the space suit he wore. Kyomu wasn't even sure if he was truly a male with how high his voice was, but the suit was so puffy that it made it almost impossible to discern his actual body shape. The domed, black helmet didn't help.

Everybody else seemed to like him, though, with how they were marveling at his very existence. Midoriya especially.

The inside of USJ itself was around as big as a theme park, amazingly enough. The entrance was on a platform far above the actual main ground, a long row of stairs leading down, and all around the interior of the hollow dome were areas that were built to simulate disaster locations. A small lake with a ship for a shipwreck, some collapsed buildings to simulate an earthquake, there was even a small cluster of buildings on fire. They truly went all out with this training facility.

Sen, who stood by his side, whistled. "How expensive is this place?" he wondered. "Must have cost a fortune."

"I've learned not to question the depth of UA's pockets," Kyomu said. "Every single day at this school gives me a new perspective on how ridiculous that depth is."

Sen, as well as a few students around them, chuckled. Even Bakugo had cracked a small grin that lasted a whole microsecond.

"Let's see..." The class' attention was turned to Thirteen, their teacher standing right besides him with a slightly perturbed look on his face. "Before we begin, let me say one thing... er... or two, or three...or four... five... six... seven..."

Kyomu had mentally checked out at eight.

"Everyone." Kyomu snapped back to attention when the counting ended. He had no way of knowing how long it went on. Based on the faces of his fellow classmates, it had at least lasted up to two digits. "I'm sure you're aware of my Quirk, Black Hole. I can suck anything up and turn it to dust."

"Kind of like your Quirk, huh, Shinka?" Uraraka said, flashing the black-haired teen a small smile.

Looking down, Kyomu flexed his hand. "Sort of. They're both black and can disintegrate things, I guess. So there's that." His was at least more versatile than the ability to suck. And had more functions that just destruction, even if it was a key feature.

"Exactly," Thirteen agreed. "They also have the fact that they can be incredibly deadly in mind. In a superhuman society, personal Quirks have been certified and stringently regulated, so that doesn't seem to be a problem at first glance. However, please do not forget that there are many Quirks that can easily kill with one wrong step."

"... Well, you're not wrong," Kyomu said, looking downwards. Many of those around him had cast sympathetic glances his way, very likely for the wrong reasons. "Quirks are extremely regulated. To the point that I can't change my Quirk's name from 'Void' to something as cool as Sen's Quirk name."

It was the first thing he could think of to redirect the feeling to room had taken, and with the laughs the joke had garnered, it was enough. He almost breathed a sigh of relief as having gotten rid of those looks he was given. All those looks had done was make him feel worse than regular.

Even Thirteen seemed to have gotten a chuckle from the joke from how his voice had momentarily wavered. "As I was saying, you've all already discovered the possibility presented by your own individual powers, as well has the potentially harmful nature of them, thanks to Aizawa's and All Might's previous respective tests. This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your Quirk to save people's lives. You do not have powers so you can harm others. I hope you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others." Thirteen finished his speech off with a graceful bow that looked dangerously close to a dab move. "That is all. Thank you for listening."

What followed was claps and congratulations by all of 1-A for a very heroic and well-said speech. All except Kyomu, who had looked down at his feet.

 _"You're wrong,"_ he thought. _"We can't use our powers to harm others? What do you think heroes do with villains all the time? I can help people just fine by hurting villains. Hurting them in the worst way possible. This power of mine is for killing and saving."_

"All right then," Aizawa said. "First-"

The large lights that circled the middle of the dome above them were shut off, interrupting the teacher. Similarly the familiar sound of unseen systems shutting down was heard, and even the fountain in the middle of USJ stopped spouting water. Nobody was given the time to contemplate this before something appeared where the fountain was.

Kyomu had thought it was smoke at first, though the hints of purple surrounding the swirling mass of black said otherwise. It expanded largely, two solid yellow lights in the mist eerily shaped light eyes staring up at them as something exited the mist. A hand, seemingly groping the empty air before it and its owner stumbled through the mist. A darkly dressed man adorned with hands. More and more people walked out of the mist behind him, varying in shapes and sizes as they stalked out of the mist.

"Gather around and don't move!" Aizawa yelled, holding an arm out in front of the students. "Thirteen, protect the students!"

 _"He sounds surprised. Concerned, even."_ Kyomu looked down at the mass of people exiting the mist. _"Those people aren't dressed like UA staff, or even mock civilians for the rescue training. So who are they?"_

"What's that?" Kirishima had taken a bold step forwards, equally confused as the rest of the class. "Is this like the entrance exam where the lesson's already started?" he asked.

"Don't move!" The teacher's shout was sudden enough to give everyone pause. "Those are villains," he gravely said, positioning the goggles that hung loosely around his neck to his eyes.

The effect of the statement was instant. Bodies started to shake in mixtures of disbelief and fear as seeing the legion of villains skulking out from the black mist below them. Even Bakugo and Todoroki, two of the most level-headed students in the class, seemed shaken by the sight before them all.

Kyomu was shaking, as well. Not in fear, though. He shook in raw anger at the sight before him.

 _"Villains? Here?"_ His fists began to clench in anger as black wisps whirled around them. _"Why!? For what possible reason could there be for-"_

A gasp besides him. "Kyomu, look out!"

He was shoved to the side before Kyomu could comprehend those words. Followed this was a splash of blood hitting him in the face, and an object hitting his feet. Once he'd gotten his balance, he'd looked down. His eyes widened upon seeing the object was a severed arm.

An ear-splitting scream caused his head to snap up. He saw Sen, kneeling on the ground and holding the bloody stump that once held his right arm while screaming in agony. In front of him was a figure dressed entirely in white, his own right arm surrounded in white light that shaped a small blade. It was a sight so bizarre and unexpected that Kyomu, let alone everyone else present, couldn't even process it before the white figure kicked Sen in the face. The screaming was abruptly cut off as Sen's body was sent flying down the stairs towards the base level of the building, body tumbling down the last few stairs before coming to a halt.

"Well, that was unfortunate," the white figure said. He tilted his head towards Kyomu, crimson eyes locking onto blue. "'Sup, bro? Been awhile."

Kyomu nearly mentally shut down when he saw the pale face of his own brother staring right at him. Then he gagged out loud when his own brother was right in front of him in a flash of light and clamped a hand around his throat.

"So I know this is a bit impromptu, but I really need to have a few words with you," Hikari said. A whirling vortex of black and purple opened behind him. "Kurogiri, put us at the top of the dome. Should be safe enough up there."

The free hand not holding Kyomu suddenly snapped back, off-white material wrapped around it. Hikari slowly swiveled his head towards the origins of the material along with Kyomu, both seeing Aizawa holding Hikari in place with his scarf. The amount of red light bleeding out between the gaps in his goggles was almost blinding.

"You're not taking my student anywhere," he coldly stated. To emphasize this, the material around Hikari's hand tightened audibly. All this had done accomplished was raise a small scoff out of the white-haired teen.

"Not me or my brother you should be worried about." He rolled his wrist and grabbed the scarf, pulling tightly. A surprised sound escaped Aizawa's mouth when Hikari tore the scarf from his arm, causing the teacher to lose his balance. "See you never."

With those words, both teens were thrown into the black vortex, Hikari leaping in with Kyomu in tow.

* * *

There were a lot of thoughts that went through Kyomu's mind as Hikari's hand left his throat and he felt himself tumbling on the ground. Most of those thoughts were incomprehensible, and he was still stuck on the mental picture of Sen getting his arm cut off. There was one thought that he managed to make out, however, that was louder and more vivid than any of his other thoughts.

 _"My brother."_ Kyomu slid to a stop as he slammed all four of his limbs on the ground, stopping his momentum. _"He's here. Villains are here. Why? What does all this mean?"_

Once he came to a full stop, Kyomu slowly stood up to his feet. Clear skies and fresh air is what greeted him, and looking down he realized he was standing on top of the white dome of USJ. In front of him was Hikari, black vortex closing behind him as his clothes and hair whiter than even the dome flowed freely in the wind.

"There. This should give us some room to talk," Hikari said. "So... how ya been?"

"... Is that seriously the first you want to say to me after all this time?" Kyomu slowly asked. "There wasn't anything else that came to mind? Just a good-old 'howya been, old buddy old pal?' Is that it?"

Hikari had smirked and chuckled lightly at that. Chuckled and smiled so casually like he wasn't aware of the current situation and was pretending everything was fine. All it served was to lower Kyomu's mood.

"Well shoot, man, what do you expect? I didn't exactly have a lot of time to plan this out. If I did it wouldn't have been on top of a dome of all places full of murderous villains." Hikari looked down. "And, uh, sorry about that guy's arm. He kinda jumped int he way. He wasn't a friend of yours, was he?"

The memory of Sen's arm caused made Kyomu clench his fists. "He was. They're all my friends."

Hikari grimaced. "... Man, this is awkward," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "How mad would you be if I told you all the villains down there were currently in the process of murdering all the students and teachers down there? Like, on a scale of one to ten. 'Cause your eyes are sendin' me a real strong nine right now."

"You escape from prison, you hurt all those heroes, you show up here with a bunch of villains intent on hurting my entire class, and to top it all off you cut off my friend's arm." A heavy sigh escaped Kyomu. "Good to know you can still make jokes despite all these stressful circumstances we find ourselves in, oh brother of mine."

"I mean, I tried to keep things casual for old time's sake. Guess that was a futile effort, huh?" The smile slowly left Hikari. "Yeah, I... I'm sorry, Kyomu. I didn't want things to go this way. I didn't even know you were gonna be in the class until we already had the attack planned out and everything."

The light, casual tone Hikari had been using thus far had slowly ebbed away. The smile fell, too, leaving more of a neutral expression as his shoulder slackened. Kyomu likewise calmed down, hands relaxing as his stature straightened out.

"Why are you doing this?" Kyomu asked. "You're... you're not a villain, Hikari."

"As far as everybody else is concerned, that's not the truth," Hikari countered. "And if you must know, I'm here to help kill All Might. Nothin' too big."

It was a statement spoken so clearly with a completely straight face that Kyomu had no choice but to believe it. Even still, he had a hard time processing what he had just heard. The concept of his own brother wanting to kill the Symbol of Peace, let alone kill anybody for that matter, was a concept so foreign to him when he thought about his brother that he almost couldn't believe it. The only reason he did, in fact, believe it was because the words came from his own brother's mouth.

"Why?" It was the only word Kyomu could think to say, mouth completely dry.

"Because this society is wrong. The government's wrong. The heroes are wrong. It's all wrong," he answered. "We should never have been put in a position where we had to choose who went to prison. You shouldn't have been at risk for being labeled a villain. We shouldn't live in a society that would send a child to prison for just using their Quirk in self defense, and that's assuming they would have believed us if we told them about that villain!" Hikari's hands balled into fists at his side. "It's... it's all their fault, Kyomu. This Quirk-phobic society that only authorizes a very select number of people to use their own body in a way society sees as 'proper'.

"All I ever thought about while in prison was of you, brother. I just... I just want things to go back to the way they were before all this. But that can't happen because of the rules this society lives by. And those rules won't change because of one person."

Kyomu shook his head. "What does killing All Might solve, Hikari?"

"All Might is the hero society's poster boy. The hero that's so powerful he deters all major crime by just standing around, and it's been like that for decades. His very existence and the peace it brings justifies these broken rules set by society, and as such they will never change. Say he dies to villains, though. It proves the rules he helped solidify aren't infallible. It shows that those rules can be questioned. Changed." He let out a large sigh. "I don't know if those changes will ever be significant enough to reverse my status as a villain, but what else am I supposes to do? I have nowhere else to go but back to prison. At least with the League of Villains I have a chance at getting my life back. Getting you back."

"And you're willing to kill All Might to do that?" Kyomu asked. "You're willing to kill him and let all the students and teachers down there die?"

"I don't care about them. I care about you." To the black-haired teen's shock, his brother held out a hand. "Kyomu, please. I'm not going to try and understand why you're even in this class, but please let this happen. I'm begging you."

It was in that moment Kyomu had seen the pleading look in his brother's eyes. It was a look of desperation he had never seen in his brother before, but it was an expression so genuine that he knew that everything Hikari had said was true. That he truly did want his brother back and nothing else.

It caused a pain inside of his chest, seeing his brother like that. He'd realized just how much he'd missed his brother, and how much he shared Hikari's wishes of wanting to be together once again. For a moment he even almost considered taking Hikari's offer and standing aside as his entire class and teachers were killed.

But then he remembered that class Hikari was trying to kill. Images of Sen passed through his mind. The first true friend he had ever made since losing Hikari. Midoriya, a boy so selfless he worried about Kyomu almost more then himself and even used that unruly Quirk that hurt him so much to help others. Iida and Uraraka, who had been similarly worried about him. Kaminari and Kirishima, who had laughed and learned alongside him. An entire class of faces who only wanted to befriend him and didn't care about a marred past or that he was so strong compared to them. Teachers who, though strict, only wanted the best of them all. A smiling and bulky hero who tried his best to help.

Those were the people Hikari was trying to kill. His friends. His only friends.

"I... I can't, Hikari." Kyomu took a step back. "I can't just let them die."

A look of true disappointment spread across Hikari's face as slowly lowered the offered hand. "You're choosing them over me?"

"No. I want to be with you as much as you, Hikari. I miss my brother more than anything else." A flash of hope went through Hikari, though it was dashed at the steely gaze Kyomu sent him. "But those people down there? They're my classmates. My teachers. They're not like all the others. They treat me like a real person!" Black wisps began to flow freely around Kyomu's arms. "They're my friends!"

Hikari blinked his crimson eyes, and then let a heavy breath out as his head dipped down. White light began to swirl around his arms as he looked back up at his brother. "I don't want to hurt you, brother, but if you're going to stand in the way, I'll have to incapacitate you."

"And I'm not going to let you stop me from helping my friends," Kyomu shot back. "So I guess we're fighting."

"Guess we are," Hikari agreed, and then smiled. "You sure you want to do this? Not gonna lie to you, bro. My chance of beating you is a hundred percent guaranteed."

Kyomu frowned. "That's my line."

And with those words spoken, both teens shot towards each other.

* * *

"Ahh. This isn't how things were supposed to go. All Might isn't here, Shinka is taking forever..." Droplets of blood began to flow around Shgaraki's fingers as he intensely scratched at his neck. "To top it all off, that brat over there almost killed me in a single punch. What kind of things are they teaching in that school, anyways?"

It'd been around five minutes since the attack on USJ had started. Students had been scattered, and the teachers were promptly dealt with. Thirteen had been promptly dealt with by Kurogiri starting the attack and was bleeding out somewhere. The Erasure hero was in a similar bleeding, broken mess about five feet from where Shigaraki was standing. But the one teacher he wanted dead out of everybody wasn't even here.

Even worse, the detachment of disposable villains sent to the sunken ship area were all out of commission, courtesy of some plucky students. One of which had been one that had almost killed Shigaraki by delivering a punch strong enough he'd felt it even after Nomu blocked it with his body. Fortunately that arm was now in Nomu's clutches and ready to be snapped into a million pieces at Shigaraki's behest.

"There's no telling what is keeping Shinka so long with his brother," the mist-formed man besides him replied. "It matters little, though. With All Might absent, this raid is for naught. It's best we retreat."

"Can't until Shinka comes back. And what do you mean it's all for nothing? Sure, we didn't get the final boss, but it's not game over just yet." He cast his crimson gaze over to the Nomu, and the terrified teen held in its grasp. "We can at least send a message to him by killing a few of his students. Maybe rile him up and make it easier to get him later. At the very least, that kid Nomu's holding is pissing me off." He cleared his throat. "Nomu-!"

A crash at the entrance to the domed building drew the attention of everybody in the vicinity who was still conscious. A dust cloud had settled along where the crash had settled. A silhouette slowly stepped out of it into the light, and though the figure had on normal teaching attire as opposed to their easily-recognizable suit, the large muscles and the locks of blonde hair on their head made it easy to tell who it was.

The remaining students who had looked up had smiled in joy at seeing All Might step into USJ. Even Shigaraki had smiled upon seeing the large man entered. The only one who wasn't smiling seemed to be All Might himself, who looked furious as the proceedings below him.

"Huh." Shigaraki lowered his hand from his neck. "Looks like we get a continue, Kurogiri."

* * *

Flashes of black and white rippled through the air at the top of the USJ dome, and if one were to look closely, they would be able to see two human forms dancing around each other as waves of dark and light energy emanated around them. The white figure dodged around black portals opening all around him, the odd limb and black figure jumping out, while the black one was dodging white beams of light thrown out by the white form.

As it stood, Hikari was practically untouched. Kyomu, by contrast, had multiple tears and singes in his black hero costume, the ends of the duster already frayed heavily from the fight. He pressed on though, despite the damage to his attire.

 _"That Quirk of his is pretty scary. He doesn't want to kill me, though. He could have done me in instantly otherwise,"_ Hikari thought as he leaped back, waving his hand and sending a volley of white beams at Kyomu. _"Portals that essentially let him travel from one point to another and portals what let him destroy anything they touch."_ He smirked. _"He's not too good, though."_

A black portal appeared under Kyomu, where he promptly dropped out of existence as the beams of light passed harmlessly over him. Hikari promptly turned around and used his forearms to block the kick that came out of the portal that opened behind him, causing his body to skid back several feet from the force. Kyomu stepped out from the portal, snapping his fingers and closing it as Hikari dusted his own clothing off.

"It's just as I thought, brother. Your power and raw strength are every bit as terrifying as mine." The two rushed forwards, throwing a fist at each. The two fists collided in between the two brothers, the immediate contact dispersing enough force to disturb the air around them. "It was always like that, though, wasn't it? We were always so much smarter and faster and better than everybody else because of what our mother's Quirk did to us."

Kyomu narrowed his eyes, stepping back from Hikari who did the same. "My classmates see past all that."

"Ah, but they don't know about our special condition, do they?"

The black-haired teen didn't answer, but the scowl was enough to prove Hikari's point.

"Oh, don't make that face. Under any other circumstance I would be thrilled that my brother finally made friends. We never could do that in our childhood. Everybody always resented us." Hikari thrust his palms upwards, light twirling just above his hands. "Oh, and to think it wasn't just our bodies that our mother's Quirk enhanced! Even our Quirks were strengthened by her influence!"

"Yeah. You were looking pretty slick when you floored Endeavor like that," Kyomu dryly replied. "You know, his son is one of my classmates."

"Seriously? That's funny." A sly grin spread across Hikari's face as he formed balls of light and juggled them from one hand to the other. "It wasn't for lack of trying, beating that hero. Practiced my Quirk a lot in secret while in prison. Didn't have much else to do. Would have easily lost that fight if I didn't develop it so much, and even then I barely made it."

He suddenly dodged to the side when a black portal opened next to him, a fist lashing out at him. In response he threw the balls of light at Kyomu, who stood in place with his arm in a portal. He snapped the fingers on his free arm and a portal appeared right in front of him, swallowing the balls of light.

More portals opened up all around Hikari, too many to keep track of. A portal below him that he wasn't paying attention to opened up wider, and a leg flew upwards in an effort to kick him. It was stopped by a wall of near-invisible hardlight, however, causing Kyomu to recede his leg as his brother grinned at him. The portals closed.

"The wonderful thing about being able to control something like light is the fact that the description is deceptively vague. It's not just light. It's every _aspect_ of light." In a flash of light Hikari had suddenly appeared right in front of Kyomu. It was a movement so fast the teen's blue eyes hadn't been able to keep up with the movement, causing him to jump slightly. "This is where our power differs, brother."

The next thing Kyomu knew a fist wreathed in white energy punched him right in the sternum. He gagged out, body tumbling backwards and sliding to a halt as Hikari slowly walked towards him.

"Manipulating light, shaping light, condensing light, using light to enhance my speed; there's so much I can do because I can control it to such an extent." He looked down at his brother. "You power is amazing, Kyomu. But, quite frankly, you haven't developed it to the extent that I've developed mine. All you've displayed is the ability to open those portals. You're my brother. I know your Quirk can do more than that."

In a flash, he was gone. Kyomu quickly got to his feet and jumped to the side when a glowing hand chopped the space he previously occupied.

"But even when we were children, Kyomu, you never practiced anything. You were always too good at everything."

A rumble below their feet caused the two teens to look downwards in confusion. The rumbling grew more and more intense, to the point the two's balance was offset by how much the ground was shaking. And then, very briefly the ground was calmed as the rumbling ceased.

And then it happened. A titanic boom right below them in the confines of USJ, one loud enough to equal that of a large cannon, rang out with enough force to shake the roof. Oddly enough the boom was accompanied by something triumphantly screaming "plus ultra!", though this was muffled due to the two's location on the roof. There was a loud crashing sound right behind them, causing the two to turn towards the source. The metal on the roof was bending upwards, as if something was pressing against it, before it gave away completely and a dark from flew out from the new hole. The two watched as that form twisted in the air, going so far that the clouds eventually covered its flight. Kyomu could have sworn there was a twinkle of light at the object's disappearance.

Whereas Kyomu looked confused, Hikari showed signs of exasperation at the sight of the object. "Was that Nomu? What the- you gotta be kidding me. Agh." He sighed, kicking his feet in frustration. "Man, and I actually believed Shigaraki when he said that bird-thing had enough power to beat All Might. Now he's blasting off to parts unknown."

Kyomu had tried to capitalize on his brother's momentary distraction by leaping backwards into a portal. A second portal promptly appeared in front of Hikari, Kyomu flying out with a leg ready to kick him. Hikari looked ready to respond before a third portal opened in between the two, Kyomu dropping in and appearing out of a fourth portal so close to Hikari's back it almost touched him. It was when Kyomu came out of that portal did he deliver a powerful kick downwards at his brother.

To his complete shock his leg went right through with absolutely no resistance.

"What!?" Kyomu, closing the portals, jumped backwards. The Hikari he'd kicked through was completely still, flicking and undulating in certain parts before fading away completely. "A... a hologram?"

"Neat, huh?"

Kyomu jerked, something white and gleaming pushing through his chest in an instant. A thin, white blade of pure light that had been stabbed right through him. He barely had any time to react before four more blades of light were pushed all the way through his torso.

"Relax, I'm not hitting anything vital. You'll be fine. I know it." Hikari stepped to Kyomu's side, tapping one of the blades sticking out of Kyomu. "Sorry to end this so quickly, brother, but All Might's right below us and our plan just got shot out the window- literally. Don't have time to play around any more."

* * *

A spot on the ceiling of USJ crumbled inwards, much to the confusion of those standing in the center who were closest to it. Shigaraki and Kurogiri, All Might panting heavily with steam wafting from his form, and four other 1-A students who had been there to support All Might in his fight against the Nomu. What happened next was even more confusing, as a dark form was tumbling down from the new hole. They had little time to contemplate this new development before the figure crashed down on the ground, flat on their back with cracked concrete all around their form.

Those present only had to look at the pale, darkly-dressed form for mere moments before those familiar with the form recognized it to be the form of Kyomu, albeit with blades of light pushing out from their prone form. The students present adopted looks of shock and horror, while All Might's face twisted in rage. Shortly after six more blades rained down, two more impaling themselves into his torso while each of the remaining four implanted themselves at a random point in one of his limbs. A final, larger blade slammed down between all the other blades in his torso, with a figure dressed in white landing in a crouching position on the tip of the final blade.

"Sorry, bro," Hikari said, looking down at his brother. His eyes were closed and blood was pooling from his mouth, but he was still breathing. It was the only thing he managed to say to the unconscious teen before he heard a yell of fury directed at him.

"Detroooiit-!"

Hikari looked up. One of the UA students, one in a UA gym uniform with darkly green hair, was flying right towards him with an arm rippling with red lines of power cocked back and ready to strike at him. Hikari simply jumped in the air, flipping forwards and outstretching a single leg. Gravity and momentum caused him to fully flip around and catch the top of the student's head with his foot, causing him to push his leg downwards the second contact was made. The student's body crashed to the ground, face smashing through the concrete and body going still as Hikari landed on the ground.

"Midoriya!" A student with spiky, blood-red hair shook himself free of his stupor and charged towards Hikari, skin visibly hardening into a rigid substance. "Damn it!"

The white-haired teen burst towards the student in a burst of light, a balled fist slamming into the student's midsection. He felt hardened skin crack under the force of his fist, causing the student to double over and uncontrollably gag out spit as his eyes grew glassy. Those same eyes widened when Hikari clamped his palm around his face and shoved him backwards hard enough that his feet were kicked up and the back of the student's head met the concrete. It cracked under the pressure and the student's eyes slowly closed as he lost consciousness.

A strange sound, one akin to an avalanche falling, was approaching Hikari's back. He turned his head around just enough to see a wall of ice rapidly growing towards him, a third student with a head of hair split between red and white standing right behind it. Six white points of light appeared right over Hikari's back upon seeing the oncoming ice, and soon beams of light were rapidly firing out of the points and at the ice. The two powers were deadlocked, the growing ice unable to overcome the onslaught of lasers vaporizing any new ice that grew at the front of the wave. This was an act that went on for three seconds before Hikari heard a new sound right in front of him: the sound of a pin being pulled.

"DIE!" That was the only word a fourth spiky-haired blonde student screamed at Hikari as he pulled the pin out of one of his grenade-shaped gauntlets, which was, unfortunately for him, aimed directly at Hikari. A concentrated, pure blast of energy exited the top of the gauntlet and streamed towards Hikari at a speed the average human eye wouldn't be able to perceive. In Hikari's case, he and the lasers behind him disappeared right before the blast hit him.

Both students' eyes widened, the red and white one more so as the blast was now heading in his direction. He had just enough time to erect a wall of ice to shield the blast, but even after it made contact enough energy had passed through to blow the student back, his body tumbling on the ground before he came to a still stop. The final student barely had any time to act on this before his head snapped back and his body was flung backwards a full five meters before he hit the ground unconscious. Hikari's form, standing where the student had been, flickered into reality before solidifying. His right hand was raised in a way that implied he'd hit the student with the back of his fist while invisible, the other hand hanging loosely in his pocket.

Once done, he surveyed the are around him. Five students, one his brother, laid unconscious all around him. All that stood left was All Might and his two fellow League members. Snapping his fingers to dispel the swords pinning his brother to the ground, he walked forward in a slow saunter, turning his head to the villains.

"Sorry I took so long," he apologized. "Kyomu was a bit of a handful."

"Oh, no problem, no problem." He couldn't tell how Kurogiri was reacting, but Shigaraki's growing smile was visible even beneath the hand he wore on his face. "Was getting really worried, you know. This raid's only been getting worse and worse. I didn't want my black mage getting KO'd. We already lost Nomu."

"Yeah, I saw that." Hikari nodded his head towards the hole in the ceiling not made by him. "So much for him being a match for All Might. The guy's standing right here in front of me and he doesn't look any worse for... well, he's still alive."

It was hard for Hikari to tell what the number one hero was thinking, but as best as he could figure he was staring right at Hikari in so much anger that it could have been the cause for all that steam lifting off of his form. His teeth were grit so hard it was surprising they weren't shattering under the force, and his fists were clenched in such a way that his entire arms were shaking. Despite this, he wasn't moving from the spot he was standing in. Hikari found this fact odd, but pressed on nonetheless.

"Our info about All Might being weakened was a bit too exaggerated," Shigaraki ground out. "What are you doing?"

"We're here to kill All Might, and right now I see All Might standing right in front of me." A sword of light flashed into the hand Hikari didn't have pocketed. "I was planning on ramming this sword through his sternum, but if you have any objections, I'm all ears."

A heavy, near-forced laugh escaped All Might. "Don't tell me you're serious, young man," he said. "I've already hit your ace out of the park, and took care of the rest of the villains your leader brought here. You three are the only ones left. You really think you have a chance?"

Hikari's footsteps didn't slow. "Bluffing doesn't suit you, All Might. I'd say you should stick to your lane of beating villains into submission, but, well..." he shook his sword. "That career is about to come to a fast end."

"Bluffing?" Despite it all, All Might managed to stretch that same, confident smile he always wore in front of everybody to see. "I'm anything but a bluffer, Shinka Hikari. I'm warning you-"

"You're bleeding from your mouth, and you have significantly less muscle mass right now than you did a few seconds ago when I first dropped in." It was a small change, one that wouldn't be noticeable to an eye that hadn't been searching for any indication the hero hadn't at the very least been wounded in the fight with Nomu. The small splashes of blood flecked over his shirt and flowing out of his mouth were indicators of internal damage. The steam was odd, but even odder was the fact that his muscles were slowly shrinking. A minute change, one so slow it was almost incomprehensible, but Hikari could see it clear as day. The fight had obviously been debilitating to All Might. It was the only reason Hikari managed to walk towards him so calmly with a sword of light. "If you could have stopped me, you would have at this point."

The smile on the hero's face faltered, and then fell altogether. "Why?" he asked.

"Because once your death is the one obstacle between me and what I want more than anything else, All Might. I kill you and everything has a chance at being solved." He brandished his sword to the side. "Now stand still. There's no need to draw this out."

The only thing separating the two at this point was the space of a couple inches. The arm holding his sword was twitching, all to eager to be thrust forwards into the tall man standing before him. The only thing standing between him and a life with Kyomu.

"I didn't mean that." All Might nodded his head towards the still body of Kyomu. "I meant why did you do this to your brother? To yourself?"

It was sheer curiosity alone that kept Hikari from thrusting the sword into All Might. "What do you mean?"

All Might's teeth ground in frustration. "I mean why did you kill your parents? Make yourself a villain and put your brother through all this grief? Just because you had power, because you thought you could so you did? I don't believe you did it for no reason other than you felt like it."

Hikari kicked forwards, hitting All Might in the chest and causing him to double over on his backside. His muscles began to shrink more rapidly and the volume of steam increased. He tried sitting up, but was held down when Hikari slammed a foot down on his chest, sword hovering directly over him.

"To the very end, you're trying to save somebody." A mirthless laugh escaped Hikari. "You have integrity. I'll give you that much. But the reason our parents are dead... well, that's a secret I gotta keep. For both the sake of me and my brother."

He thrust the sword downwards without so much as a word of farewell. All Might didn't so much as close his eyes are even avert his gaze, instead choosing to stare up at the white-haired teen's eyes even as the sword plunged straight towards his heart.

It never reached it.

"What...?" Hikari tilted his head to the side. A black portal had opened right above the spot Hikari was stabbing towards, the tip of the sword being engulfed. He dispelled the sword immediately after and stepped off All Might, looking to the side. "Really now, Kyomu?"

Blood was dripping off of Kyomu's body at multiple points in large amounts, and a trail was even leaving his mouth. Despite the heavy bleeding and his slumped stance, however, Kyomu stared at his brother with a hardened expression, black wisps trailing up both of his arms. His eyes had briefly flicked to All Might's thinning form before going back to Hikari.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't stab my teacher..." he muttered, blood splashing out from his mouth at every word.

The light that had been trailing around Hikari's arm's dispersed. He felt something pull at his chest when he saw his brother so heavily wounded, and he felt almost sick at the sight.

 _Bang!_

Any words Hikari would have liked to share with his bleeding brother were cut off when the sword of light instantly re-lit in his hands, his arm quickly twisting around to block the back of his shoulder with his blade. Little to no time had passed before something small and fast vaporized upon hitting it. A bullet.

Calming himself with a loud sigh, Hikari turned around as Kyomu looked up to the entrance of USJ. Atop the stairs was one of the students Hikari had briefly glanced at upon the beginning of the attack, the tall armored one with glasses. And to that student's left and right were more heroes than he was comfortable with.

Kyomu let out a bloody cough. "Huh. Teachers actually came."

Hikari hadn't answered his brother. He'd instead began to glow a bright white before his body had zipped right in front of the group in less than a second. The second he stopped he turned towards one of the heroes, one that wore a large hat and gas mask. In his hand was a pistol that was smoking. Hikari grabbed the gun in an instant, holding it and the hand that was clenching it up between their faces.

"Didn't realize they let heroes carry guns around these days," Hikari growled as the pistol began to glow a hot red. "Since when is shooting somebody in the back a heroic act?"

The hero let out a pained yell as the hot metal burned his hand through the glove he wore, Hikari tossing the weapon away and raising a glowing hand up to the hero. A black portal opened next to him and a form barreled out and into him, causing him to miss when a laser shot out from his hand.

The two rolled to their feet. Kyomu's breathing was becoming more labored and the ground beneath him was becoming soaking with blood. Hikari had trouble focusing on the number of heroes right behind the bleeding brother who were staring right at the two. Light briefly danced along his arms, but when he looked back at his brother the light faded.

 _"Too many heroes. I could probably take them, but..."_ With a sigh, Hikari turned away and looked down at Shigaraki and Kurogiri. _"Kyomu isn't gonna stop, and in that condition even I'm worried. Can't risk him."_

In a flash of light he was right next to Shigaraki. From the corner of his eyes he saw a hero, a bipedal piece of cement with a face, slam his hands onto the ground only for a wave of wet concrete to rush towards them. It was stopped in its tracks when a wall of hardlight blocked its path.

"Mission's a bust, Shigaraki," Hikari said. "What do you want to do?"

He looked over his shoulder at the League leader. One of his hands was scratching at his raw neck and his breathing sounded disturbed, but the eyes visible between the gaps of the hand's fingers had narrowed in resignation.

"We've lost too many players. We can't clear the level," he rasped. "Kurogiri, get us out of here."

* * *

By this point the blood loss mixed with the pain coursing through his entire body was severely inhibiting his eyesight, but even so Kyomu could still make out the shape of his brother and the two League members down in the middle of USJ. He saw the man made of mist expand into portal, Shigaraki immediately walking through. His brother had briefly looked up at Kyomu before following the hand-wearing man through the portal, and afterwards the mist disappeared completely.

 _"It's... it's over."_ A loud, wet cough escaped Kyomu following this. _"He's gone. Everybody's safe."_

He coughed out loud once more as a wave of new pain ran through his body. He began to feel his hands and feet going numb and he found that it was becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain his balance, but even through all this he managed to get a smile out.

The villains were gone. None of his friends or teachers had died. It was a good enough victory for him to finally relax the tension in his shoulders before the growing darkness in his vision did that for him. He'd even got to talk to his brother after all these years. Oddly enough, despite all the pain he'd inflicted on his body, Kyomu felt... almost relieved seeing his brother. Even if he'd almost killed his teacher.

"Shinka!" A pair of hands roughly grabbed Kyomu's shoulders. He was just barely able to make out Iida's face through his swimming vision as the concerned student looked up and down his body. "You-you're hurt! You're bleeding everywhere, and-and these holes-"

"Iida." Kyomu's voice, low and husky, cut off the student's rambling as his eyes snapped up to Kyomu's. "You ran all the way back to UA to get the teachers?"

"I'm... I'm the class representative. It was my responsibility." Vague forms that could have been the heroes rushed past Iida's backside towards the center of USJ. Kyomu's vision was too blurry to tell them apart.

"Heh." The one laugh caused a globule of blood to land on Iida's armor. "Oh, uh, s-sorry about that. Kinda... bleeding everywhere. Good on ya for saving the class, though."

Shaking his head, Iida slowly set Kyomu down on the ground. He'd tried to resist the movement, but at this point he couldn't move his limbs.

"Don't worry about it," Iida said in a choked whisper. "We'll get you to Recovery Girl. You're going to be okay."

Kyomu let out a low sound. "Course I'll be okay. I'm me. Do I have to go to Recovery Girl, though? You can't get me to a regular hospital? They have real lollipops over there. That old biddy just gives out those crummy gummy bears." The strength had left Kyomu's neck, and his head lolled to the side and onto the ground. "Iida, I... I'm feeling really tired here. Gonna go to sleep now."

Iida started to try and shake Kyomu awake. Or perhaps it was Kyomu's wavering vision. He'd lost too much feeling to differentiate between the two. Iida had been yelling something at him, too, but the words were so muffled that Kyomu couldn't make out a single word he said.

His eyes closed fully and finally lost all feeling.


	14. Chapter 14

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 14- Recovery**

* * *

When Kyomu awoke, it wasn't to a ridiculously high and slightly damaged, curved ceiling. Instead it was a normal white ceiling. The same white as the walls around him and the bed sheets covering him.

He sat up in the bed he lay in, looking down. His hero costume had been replaced with a hospital gown and nothing else. He was pleased though unsurprised to see that the wounds Hikari had given him were completely healed. The holes were sealed and not even a scar was left from where all those blades made of light had impaled him. At the very least he felt okay.

His eyes traveled upwards. It wasn't a hospital room, though UA stocked the infirmary with enough medical supplies that it could pass off as one. As far as he could tell nobody else was present. What was present, however, was a small chair resting against his bedside. There were only two things on the chair: a black pair of pants and a lollipop. Raising an eyebrow, he reached over an took the lollipop off from the chair. A small sticky note was attached to the stem.

 _"'Get well soon. Iida.' Huh."_ Kyomu tore the note and wrapper off the candy to inspect it. It was little else than a flat, circular piece of hard candy on a small stick. A blueberry flavored one. _"Could have sprung for cherry, but whatever. Thanks, man."_

He popped the treat into his mouth and tore the robe off of him, only to quickly slip on the black pants. He groaned softly, rolling his left shoulder and feeling a few bones pop from the movement. Questions like how long he had been out and how everybody else was doing passed through his mind by faded as he quickly bit the lollipop off the stick and tossed said stick in a trash bin on the other side of the room. He was sure they were fine. From what he knew nobody affiliated with UA had died in the attack.

The door to the room opened. He tensed up very briefly, but relaxed when he saw that it was only a short, old woman walking in. The school's nurse, Recovery Girl. One with a healing Quirk at that. Seemed like a lot of doctors these days had a healing Quirk of some kind.

"What the...?" The eyes the old lady seemed to keep in an eternal squint seemed to tighten impossibly further as she shuffled towards him. "Young man, what are you doing out of bed? You were hurt just yesterday. You shouldn't be moving around right now!"

"Yesterday, huh?" Kyomu seemingly ignored the nurse as he looked out a window on the other end of the room. The sun was shining brightly through. "Yeah, feels about right."

Recovery Girl attempted to grab at his wrist he rose the arm up, scratching the back of his head as he stifled a loud yawn.

"The others doin' okay?" he asked. "Saw that some of 'em got pretty roughed up. "

"Shinka, you really shouldn't be moving around. The wounds you sustained-"

"I'm fine," he said. "Hey, you didn't answer. What happened to me friends?"

The old woman placed her hands on her hips. "Shinka-"

The teen's change in demeanor was so sharp it could almost be felt. His body went rigid and his eyes snapped down to the old woman, eyes boring directly into her squinted ones. His face was completely blank, though the eyes boring into her had actually managed to put the nurse off guard and served to actually make her uncomfortable the longer he stared.

"Stop saying that. I'm fine. I'll walk out right now if you say it again." His tone lowered into one that had set the nurse on edge, but lightened to a normal tone as he stretched his arms behind his body. "Ah man, used to sleeping in late, but a full day? Geez, new record."

"Ah-huh..." She took a step back. "You really... are looking pretty well all things considered. Hm."

Her head was moving up and down to get a full view of his body. Her gaze had particularly stopped near his midsection and limbs, the areas he'd been stabbed. Her lips tightened into a thin line.

"Shinka, are you aware of what my Quirk does?" the nurse asked him.

"Heals people?" he shrugged. "I don't know, lady. I'm not Midoriya. I don't keep up with every single Quirk I see like he does. Guy even compiles it all into those notebooks of his. He'd be an amazing stamp collector."

A brief grin spread across her features, but went back to the tight line it had been. "My Quirk doesn't expressly heal people, but speeds up the body's natural healing ability at the expenditure of a large amount of the recipient's energy. Wounds that are, well... permanent can't be helped."

"What are you getting at here?"

"You sustained wounds that shouldn't have been healed so well, Shinka. Some of those wounds should have been permanent." Kyomu's arms lowered as he slowly turned to face the elder nurse. "You had multiple tendons in your joints completely severed. Fourteen of your ribs alone were completely broken, not to mention over a dozen other bones you had broken. You suffered heavy blood loss and your blood pressure was fatal when you were brought in. I'm not even mentioning the multiple full-bore lacerations that were all over your body." She crossed her arms. "Even with my Quirk, you shouldn't be walking around. You don't even have any scarring from the stab wounds. It's all completely healed."

He managed to keep his outward, placid appearing, though on the inside Kyomu was heavily wincing. There had never been a point in his life where he'd been as heavily injured as he was yesterday. Throughout his entire life the worst wounds he ever sustained were a few scratches here and there from accidents. He'd theorized his healing had been augmented from his mother's Quirk like everything else, but he never knew to what extent.

Apparently it was almost too good.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Kyomu's hands were placed in his pockets as he leaned against the bed. "So it's the middle of the day, right? Probably missing a class right about now."

The nurse shook her head. "In light of yesterday's events, today was cancelled. There are no classes."

"Ah." The teen nodded his head. "How 'bout the wounded?"

"Most of the students' injuries were minor and I was able to treat them here. Eikyo's case was a bit more involved." Kyomu stiffened when he heard his friend being mentioned. Recovery Girl actually laughed at this. "Oh, don't worry about him. We flew in a doctor from Tokyo who had a regenerative Quirk. He managed to reattach the arm with no difficulties whatsoever. He'll make a full recovery."

A relieved sigh escaped Kyomu. "Oh. That's... that's good." His head turned down to hers. "You know where he is?"

"He's somewhere in the school. Apparently the process of reconnecting all those severed nerves forced Eikyo to go through a bit of... we'll say rehabilitation." A look passed through the nurse's face that Kyomu couldn't quite place, though it was soon dropped. "I can go fetch him for you. Might take some time, though. He likes to wander."

"Mm. I'd like that." Kyomu pushed off the bed and headed towards the door.

* * *

He'd been at the school long enough to know the layout of it. And fortunately enough, he knew exactly where the teacher's lounge was thanks to All Might showing him the way there one time. Conveniently enough, it was rather close to the nurse's office.

He had no idea if any of the other teachers were in the school if the day was cancelled. The principle most likely, but anybody else would be unlikely. As unlikely as it was, however, he at least wanted to look and see.

So he'd gone to the lounge and opened the door. There was a startled gasp less than a moment before the door fully swung in to reveal who it was in there. In this case it was All Might himself holding a cup of coffee.

"Oh. You are here after all," Kyomu intoned. "Cool."

"Young Shinka." Slowly, the hero set down the coffee. "Uh... I'm not sure that the students are allowed to just open the teacher's lou-"

"'S fine." Kyomu closed the door behind him and walked over to the same couch he'd been sat in not even three days ago, slowly sitting down.

The moment of silence that passed between the two of them would have been tense if All Might didn't look so flustered upon Kyomu entering the room so abruptly. That or the fact he had yet to find a shirt to put on since leaving the infirmary. It didn't matter much to Kyomu. He only wanted to kill some time until that nurse found his friend.

"You're looking well," All Might commented. "I would have thought the injuries you sustained would have had a more lasting effect. Or at least have put you in the infirmary longer than a day." A bright smile flashed through his features. "It just goes to show you're made of sterner stuff, eh, young Shinka?"

"I guess."

Another awkward moment of silence that had to be broken by All Might speaking.

"You seem troubled by something," he noted. "Is something the matter?"

"..." Kyomu looked up towards the ceiling. "Losing at something feels weird," he said at last. "I don't like it."

"Losing?" Shadowed eyes rose in realization. "Ah, I see. Your brother, right?"

The teen nodded. "I didn't expect to meet Hikari like that. I expected us to be fighting even less. We never... did something like that. Fight." His head rolled down. "And apparently he's really good at it, because he floored me and five of my classmates before nearly running a dumb light sword through you."

There would likely be no end to the awkward questions that would result from that. Questions like how his brother was that strong. Questions he could probably play off with the excuse of him just having an overly powerful Quirk, but he doubted that would work on everybody in the class if they all asked. Most, for sure.

But he wasn't concerned with how his brother had won. He knew fully well how his brother had won even if nobody else knew exactly how. He was just concerned about what he was supposed to do about that.

All Might, either sensing Kyomu's distress or trying his best to guess the teen's troubles, nodded. "Your brother was a... formidable villain, I'm afraid." His voice was almost pained from the admittance. "You are all still children. You've only just begun your training as heroes. I myself was at his mercy from being so weakened from the fight with that Nomu person. You can't expect-"

"That ain't the problem," Kyomu interrupted. "I don't blame you all to losing to him. But I could have won if I really wanted to. And he knew that."

The hero tilted his head to the side. "I'm afraid I don't understand, young Shinka."

"Hikari's Quirk is versatile as well as powerful," Kyomu began. "It has offensive capabilities. It has defensive capabilities. And all those abilities are strong enough to compete with the number two hero. His only weakness is that it runs off light." He sighed, looking at his hands. "Mine isn't so... flexible. I can open portals left and right all day long, sure, but there's only so much I can do with that, you know? Sure, in terms of defense and support it's amazing. You've seen the things I've done with it. I can use it to move around, make obstacles, hell, use it as a shield. Why not? Offensively, though..."

"You're worried its offense it too strong," All Might interjected, causing Kyomu to look up. "Don't look so surprised, young Shinka! We all saw your performance during the exam. You wouldn't have placed first if you hadn't destroyed so many robots. I even think a few other teachers were worried about your Quirk being a bit too dangerous."

"Yeah, and that's the problem. I can throw some fancy punches and kicks using my Quirk to redirect my hits, but outside of that?" Kyomu shook his head. "If I were to actively attack with my Quirk at best people lose body parts, and at worse they die. Fine if I'm fighting a guy with a regeneration Quirk, but ninety-nine percent of the time that ain't gonna be the case. That's why I couldn't fight all out against my brother. I would have killed him."

And what did that say about his Quirk compared to Hikari's? That it was too strong by comparison? Or that he didn't have as much control or that his brother's Quirk was just more adaptable? Kyomu wasn't quite sure. What he was sure of was that his brother knew that his Quirk was so dangerous. So much so that he knew Kyomu wouldn't have risked using it at full power against him.

Kyomu had a lot of thoughts about his brother currently. No matter what, though, he would never have seriously hurt or killed his brother.

"It's a problem many heroes have to contend with," All Might admitted. "Some Quirks are just too dangerous for their own good. Some manage to train themselves to work around their own Quirks and compensate for this weakness. Others have support companies make special devices made to intentionally cripple their own Quirk so that it doesn't get out of hand."

"I don't think an anti-support device is gonna help my case," Kyomu said with a shake of his head. "Eh, whatever. It's fine. I'll think of something. Probably."

The word "probably" had caused All Might to give him a sideways glance, but the teen had ignored it. He'd think on his Quirk, that was a definite. He needed to find some way to make it more versatile. At the end of the day for him, though, it already had its most important function: the ability to kill quickly and dispose of evidence, mainly body parts. Killing villains would be no problem for him. Fighting without killing with it was the problem. And he wasn't fool enough to believe he'd always be able to kill a villain he fought. He wouldn't always be alone.

All Might cleared his throat. "I'm glad you are contemplating ways of improving yourself, young Shinka. It's a sign of growth. Can I... ask you something, though?"

"Mm? Yeah, what?"

"Your Quirks, the ones you and your brother use... they wouldn't happen to have any effect outside of what we've already seen, do they?" Upon seeing Kyomu's confused look, he elaborated. "Young Shinka, some of the things I saw you and your brother do were unusual, especially for teens of your age. I thought your brother defeating Endeavor just meant he had a great intellect and a good Quirk to counter his fire, but now I'm wondering..."

Kyomu had to resist groaning. It was the nurse questioning his "miraculous" healing all over again, he could just feel it.

"I saw you fall from the top of USJ to the ground. With those light blades sticking from your body," All Might stated. "The fall alone should have killed a normal person."

"Is that so?" Kyomu airily replied.

"Not to mention how you were moving despite all that blood you were losing, your results from Aizawa's test from the first day, the way your brother kicked young Midoriya to the ground so... casually..." He shuddered. "He even broke Aizawa's capture scarf. His carbon-reinforced capture scarf made to restrain villains with high-grade strength."

"I get it, I get it." The black-haired teen raised his hands up. "Okay. How much do you know about my mother, All Might?"

He hummed, rubbing his thick fingers over his chin. "She was a hero, correct?"

"Yeah. Called herself GACT." Kyomu gave the hero a nod. "And she called her Quirk Genetic Hardening. She was able to genetically improve anybody she used her Quirk on temporarily. More strength, more intelligence, it improved everything. Most of the time she ran support with other heroes by buffing their abilities for the duration of a rescue or battle or something like that. She was able to improve herself, too, but from what I know she rarely ever fought." He looked down at his own hand, flexing it. "When she was pregnant with me and my twin, she had her Quirk on twenty-four seven because she was working so much overtime. Apparently it did some... weird things to our genes. Best as the doctors could figure, our bodies were permanently enhanced by her Quirk due to being exposed to it so long while we were still in the process of being... constructed, I guess you could say." He held his arms to the side. "So if you want an explanation for how I could survive impossible heights and why Hikari is so strong, there it is. My brother and I were born with a natural advantage over normal humans outside of a Quirk. And we think even those got enhanced from our mother, too."

He could tell from the face All Might was making that he paid rapt attention to the explanation, though it seemed to throw even the number one hero for a loop. Kyomu supposed that he couldn't blame him. For whatever reason, it wasn't exactly a fact that was ever made public. And as far as he knew there were no other cases he had ever heard of where somebody's Quirk had permanently enhanced another individual. Temporarily, for sure. There were tons of Quirks out there like that. But the circumstances around what happened to him and his brother were so unique he doubted there were any others like it.

Finally, All Might cleared his throat. "Well, that's... that's good for you! I appreciate you telling me-"

"Didn't do it for free, All Might."

The hero froze mid-sentence whereas Kyomu had crossed his arms, leaning back in the couch while fixing him with a glare. "You wanna explain to me why you were shrinking like that back at USJ? Back when all that steam was wafting off of you?"

Sweat began to bead down All Might's face. "I, uh... have no idea what you're talking about!" The smile he held began to waver as he released a nervous chuckle. "You were heavily wounded at the time, young Shinka. Why, there was so much blood pouring out of you that everybody was surprised you were able to stand so long! You must not have been seeing clearly and-"

"Don't insult my intelligence." It was said in a soft tone of voice, but Kyomu still found a way to make it sound icy. "I know what I saw. My brother was standing right over you. Even if you were exhausted, you should have been able to at least try swatting him off."

His mouth opened to try and say another excuse, but the accusing glare Kyomu threw at All Might caused him to slowly close it. He let out a long, drawn-out breath and then exploded.

Kyomu's had nearly fallen off of the couch when the muscled man sitting across from him had exploded into a cloud of white smoke, and was so busy staring that he couldn't think of what to make of what he was looking at. Slowly, though, the smoke dissipated, and through all the smoke he managed to see that a figure was still sitting there. All Might's form. Though it was noticeably smaller than what he remembered.

And then the smoke cleared completely and Kyomu saw what the problem was.

The man who was now sitting across from Kyomu wore the same teaching suit All Might had been wearing five seconds ago. He had the same hair, though it was noticeably more disheveled and... flat, for lack of a better term. His skin had grown a sickly pallor. He'd gone from having an imposing height to being shorter than Kyomu himself, and to top it all off it seemed like all the muscle the man once possessed was gone. There wasn't even any fat to replace it. The thing trying to pass off as a man was so skinny that he would probably keel over if Kyomu tried to breath on him. His face didn't even look the same; impossibly chiseled jawlines had turned into hallowed cheeks and a chin sharp enough to cut the tension that was starting to set between the two of them.

"I change my mind, go back." It was the only response the student could come up with as a response to the sight sitting in front of him.

He chuckled. The confidence and boisterous tone of his voice had completely disappeared. Now he just sounded tired. "Wish it were that easy, kid," he mumbled, fixing Kyomu with eyes so sunken into his head the only parts visible were the blue irises. "Really do."

"You look... you look awful," Kyomu admitted. "You make an anemic cancer patient on chemotherapy look like a professional body builder who's been juicing."

All Might's thin shoulder sagged. "I know."

"It's like you're a cartoon character and somebody just poked one of your biceps with a needle and all the air came shooting out."

"Hot air is what I'm mostly full of these days," the man sighed.

"You make that one tweaker that lives in a box near my orphanage look like they're in the best shape of their life."

"Shinka, I get it," All Might snapped. Kyomu nodded, closing his mouth. "You see why I don't tell the public about this? I'm supposed the be the Symbol of Peace. The number one hero who's so strong he stops crime just by standing around. The guy with a perfect hero record who saved countless people and ushered in a new era of peace in a society of heroes. Maintaining that image is easy when everybody pictures the me you saw walking in this room."

Kyomu turned to the side. "I wouldn't exactly pin all my hopes and dreams on that tacky suit you're wearing," he quietly muttered before turning back to All Might. "Okay, so it turns out your Quirk is a temporary body buff. A really, _really_ good body buff. You've been maintaining the image for decades now though, right?"

All Might shook his head. "'Fraid not."

He reached down and lifted his suit up, near the bottom of what were once magnificent pectoral muscles but now mere slabs of weak skin. Under that suit, on the left side of his torso, was a large, purple and scarred wound. Kyomu almost vomited at the sight of it.

"Used to be that the form of All Might everybody knows and loves was permanent. It couldn't just be 'turned off' like this," the hero explained. "Five years ago I got into a pretty nasty fight with a villain. Got my whole stomach torn out of me."

The teen blanched. "L-like your whole stomach? Dude must have really hated you. Geez. How'd you even survive that?"

"Almost didn't. Went through a bunch of transplants and dozens of surgeries to fix myself, but by then the damage had already set in. My body was so weakened that it's been continually deteriorating over the years as a result of all the damage I took. I can use my Quirk to transform myself into the form I used to have, but it's temporary now. Even worse is that the time limit I've been shackled to has been shrinking more and more along with my real body. And that fight with Nomu clipped it even further." Sighing, he lowered his suit back down. "Now I'll be lucky to get an hour a day out of that form, and that'd be pushing it."

It was a story the teen was finding himself wishing he hadn't known more and more as time went on. Not because it shattered his world view of All Might- he hadn't even paid attention to the man before he became his teacher, nor because he now knew a secret he regretted asking about. It was mostly due to how awkward the situation had became.

And quite honestly, Kyomu wanted to leave.

"I'm not gonna lie, All Might. I walked in here only to end up carrying a lot more baggage than I thought I would." He found himself slowly sitting up from the couch. "I mean I just wanted to get some pressure off my chest and then you up heaving all this on me."

"You saved my life from your brother, and you shared your body's unique circumstance with me," All Might said. "Seemed fair enough."

"Yeah, my secret was just a weird quirk in my biology that I didn't really care about anybody knowing. Yours is literally a world-altering secret."

A bony smile graced the bony man's lips. "Shinka, you're one of the most prosperous students in class 1-A. There's no doubt in my mind you'll make an amazing hero one day. But with the stress you've undoubtedly been feeling with your brother and, well, everything else I just thought you'd want somebody to confide in once in awhile. Like what we did a couple of days ago, you know?" He winked one of his sunken eyes at Kyomu. "And I really am grateful to you for saving my life, young man. Doing this is the least I could do to repay you. The only reason I showed you this truth when you asked about it is because I didn't want any mistrust between the two of us."

"I..." Kyomu stood up fully and turned towards the door. "Thanks for the gesture, All Might. I appreciate it. That and the trust and everything." He quickly shuffled towards the door. "I gonna go check up on Sen. See ya."

The clicking sound indicating the door being opened had never sounded more liberating.

"Of course. And young man..." The teen turned just in time of a small explosion and a puff of smoke. The muscled, recognizable form of All Might was smiling back at him. "If ever you need somebody to turn to, you can always count on me!"

Kyomu had left the room without saying another word. With a sigh, All Might shrunk back down.

* * *

 _"Agh, that All Might. Always trying to help."_ A dogged sigh came out of Kyomu's mouth as he walked back down UA hallways on his way to the infirmary room. _"Guess I can't fault the guy. He's trying his best. Still, that whole weakening thing was a bit much."_

Was he disheartened by the news that All Might was slowly but steadily losing his power? It was a tough question for him to answer. If he thought very deep and very hard about the matter, he supposed there was a sliver of concern over the loss of the hero. Small and yet insignificant. He'd been the Symbol of Peace for decades. Everybody had to retire eventually, and in all honesty All Might's career had gone on longer than most other heroes'.

It was the only explanation he could think of for not being that overly concerned. The loss of the Symbol of Peace was an inevitability no matter what happened. Either he would eventually retire because his body gave out or somebody would kill him. Probably his brother if that were the case. And afterwards there would almost definitely be a swell of villains, even if all the other heroes who had grown complacent over All Might stepping down picked up the slack.

Worked for him. More villains meant more to kill down the line.

 _"Dunno why he keeps trying to help me by talking to me. Hope it's not something weird like him and some of the other teachers thinking I'm disturbed 'cause of the whole thing with my brother."_ He stopped at the infirmary door, his hand reaching towards the handle. _"Ah, well. Doesn't matter I guess."_

He opened the door, and all his previous worries seemed to melt away when he saw the person standing in the middle of the infirmary. A shining head turned towards him, orange eyes widening in surprise. And then Sen smiled, waving his arm. The one that had been detached, now reattached.

"Sen." Smiling for the first time in over a day, Kyomu stepped into the room. "You're okay."

"Yo, Kyo-!"

That was as far as Sen got before his healed arm curled inwards and punched its owner in the face.

The bald teen yelled out in pain, crumpling downwards while grabbing at his face. Kyomu had stared in confusion at the sight before he approached Sen very rapidly, crouching down to help Sen onto his feet.

"Are you alright?" Kyomu asked. He moved Sen's hand out of the way to inspect his face. There was already a bruise forming. "Oh, Sen, why'd you go and do something like that? You're still in recovery, right?"

"Man, it's not my fault!" Growling in frustration, Sen ripped his arm away. "I'm happy UA flew in that guy to put my arm back on and everything, but damn, the thing won't listen to me!"

Kyomu cocked his head to the side. "How so?"

"Evidently attaching a whole limb isn't as easy as you think, even with a regeneration Quirk," he sighed. "My Quirk and blood circulation and everything is fine, but it's like I... it's like I forgot how to move the arm. And every time I think about your brother it flips out. You got his face so I guess seeing it... yeah." Grumbling under his breath, he shook his arm. "Doc said it was temporary. Give it a day or two and it'll be back to normal. Just gotta relearn how to use the damn thing."

"O-oh. I'm glad." Kyomu felt one of his own arms unconsciously rub at the other as a wave of guilt swept over him. "Sen, I'm sorry that happened to you. My brother, he... I-I didn't want anybody... I should have just moved out of the way-"

"Hey, dude, don't sweat it." A hand softly landed on Kyomu's shoulder. The hand that hadn't been removed from Sen. "Your brother's a messed up guy. I get it. You couldn't have known, right?"

He paused. "Messed up...?"

"Well, yeah." Sen shrugged. "Your brother killed your parents, right? Then he went and joined the League of Villains, and they just tried to kill all of us and All Might. Thirteen and Aizawa are in the hospital because of it. My arm-" it twitched in response, "- got cut off and had to be reattached. You even got really hurt. So yeah. Your brother's a bit messed up in the head."

He could see how the situation looked from an outside perspective when Sen said it like that. In fact pretty much every perspective painted Hikari in that light except for the perspective the brothers shared. The true one. He wanted so badly to correct Sen and tell him that Hikari was just a sane person as Kyomu himself was. But that would lead all sorts of questions he couldn't possibly answered. Instead he gave a weak nod.

"I... suppose that's not too inaccurate," he quietly chuckled. "So did you talk to anybody else after the attack?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Oh man, you shoulda seen how worried everybody was when they saw you bleeding out on the ground. 'Specially Iida. Guy was almost crying, and when Midoriya came to he was really crying, and everybody else..."

* * *

"Seeya tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah. Hope the arm gets better." The two waved at each other before turning in opposite directions and proceeding to walk away from the UA gates. It took no small amount of convincing on their part to get the nurse to discharge them, but they'd finally been let out. And even if she refused they would have just walked out on their own anyways. Kyomu was making his way to the usual train station. Sen's mother was apparently going to pick him up somewhere. She was apparently very worried from what Sen had said.

A mother worried about a wounded son. It made Kyomu wonder what his mother would have said if she saw his body all impaled like how it had been. Or that her two sons were fighting so brutally. It was thoughts that hadn't surfaced in the teen ever since he thought about what his mother would think of her son being a killer long ago. Thoughts he'd come to be content with.

Thoughts that were interrupted when he'd bumped into something.

He stumbled. Confusion grew on his face when he realized that there was nothing in front of him or behind him. He briefly wondered what he'd bumped into until he felt something in his hand that hadn't been there prior to the bump. He looked down to see a small piece of paper in his hand. Unfolding the note didn't reveal much; a street address and a time, eight at night.

He was almost positive that a piece of paper didn't have the same mass as a human being around his own size. Because that was what it had felt.

"Hikari?" It was either him or some other person who had turned invisible that had bumped into him. It was the only explanation he could think of for the phenomenon. And seeing as invisibility Quirks were extremely rare and he doubted his classmate Hagakure had stripped naked just to sneak into him and give him a note, he only saw one real plausible explanation.

He would have saw her mole if it actually was Hagakure.

Shaking his head, he looked down at the note. He didn't even know where this street was. most definitely not in this city, that was for sure. And he only had so many hours to find this place.

 _"Alright, Hikari. Alright."_ A black portal opened behind Kyomu. _"You wanna arrange a weird meeting place, that's cool. We could have just talked right there, but fine. That's fine. I can work with that."_

* * *

And he had, in the end, managed to work with it.

He'd found that finding the location was incredibly more simple that he thought it'd be. Internet was a beautiful thing when it came to searching for stuff, and while the computer at the orphanage was still as old and outdated as ever, it was still good for some things. Typing in the address in the note gave him an overhead map view of an area in a city just next to the one he lived in. There wasn't anything significant he could see, just a small space between a quartet of buildings. A couple trees and a bench were the only notable features.

Seeing that, he'd went to his room, grabbed a box and some clothes, and left in as many portals as he could make. The second one of the children there or, worst case scenario, Mizo, saw him he'd be run over with a sea of children and he'd never get out. And that was an inevitability no matter how long he put it off, even if he managed to sneak back into his room to catch some sleep. He'd just wake up with orphans jumping on him.

That was all fine and well, but he was on a time limit. He could save that for later.

Some portal traveling here, riding a bullet train there, and throwing an empty can at a police officer's head for yelling at him for public Quirk usage halfway to his location had ended with him walking to the clearing with a half hour to spare.

He almost wasn't surprised to see his brother sitting so casually on the bench he'd seen in the map image, one leg slung over the other with his arms draped over the back of the bench, his form illuminated by nearby streetlamps. He actually turned his head over to Kyomu and waved at him.

He felt like he should have felt a little bit of ire over such a casual gesture considering everything, but he didn't. Instead he felt he could only shake his head and approach his brother.

"Hey! Kyomu!" Hikari clapped his hands together and moved further down the bench to make room. "You got my note. Awesome."

"The hell is up with this?" Kyomu asked, gesturing to their surroundings. "We couldn't have done this anywhere else? We were right there. Makin' me run around the country just to find this place, I swear..."

"A combination of Shigaraki not wanting me being too far from the League and all the heroes around that place. Hero patrols got doubled because of that whole USJ thing." The white-haired teen shrugged. "I guess getting a couple kids and heroes wounded'll do that. You're looking great, by the way."

Kyomu rolled his eyes, sitting down on the bench and setting the box down. "No thanks to you," he dryly remarked. "You couldn't have been more gentle? That kinda hurt, man."

"I said I intentionally missed all the important bits. You're up and moving now, right?"

There was a bit of humor in the air between them, and both brothers could feel it. Having such a macabre conversation in the lightest of tones. And despite everything a smile had begun to grow on both of the teens' faces.

"What's with the box?" Hikari pointed down to the container next to Kyomu's feet. "Didn't think you'd actually bring something."

"Oh, that." Kyomu reached down and moved the box closer towards his brother. "You know that manga we used to read when we were kids? The one Amon hated?"

A pale set of hands reached down to open the box, the owner shaking his head mirthfully as he looked into the contents. "Oh, no way. _Bright Night_? You actually collected the series after everything?" he asked, holding up one of the books.

"Yeah. It only went on for twenty-one chapters though." Sheepishly, Kyomu began to rub at the back of his neck. "I already read 'em a bunch and everything and I remembered that you really liked them, so you can keep them."

Hikari's face lit up. "Really? Thanks! Prison life never gave me any manga to read." He set the book back in the box, closing it and moving it behind his feet. "And twenty-one, huh? Guess Amon was wrong, if barely. How's that guy doing, anyways?"

"His shop burned down. He had to move somewhere to restart his business."

The smile on Hikari's face fell a little. "Oh. That's too bad."

"Yeah." Kyomu's feet tapped the ground nervously as he wrung his hands together. "What's going on right now?"

"We're having a conversation. Thought it was pretty obvious." He gestured up towards the sky. "I even picked out some nice scenery. The smog and light pollution filling the sky is so slightly lower in this part of the city that if you squint really, _really_ hard... well, you still won't notice a difference, but a bunch of graphs online said this area was cleaner than the rest."

They both chuckled. It was only a brief reprieve, though eventually they both fell back into an awkward silence. The brief mirth from earlier was quickly fading.

"Seriously," Kyomu began, "what's going on right now?"

"I wanted to have a conversation with my brother. A real one, not that... whatever you call what happened on the USJ roof," Hikari answered. "I haven't talked to you in ten years, and a whole country's worth of heroes looking around for me doesn't make things easier. I'm doing the best I can here."

"Your best," the black-haired teen repeated. "You're doing your 'best'. Hanging around with villains and trying to kill All Might is your 'best'. Cutting off my friend's arm is your 'best'."

"Hey, I said that was an accident," he rebutted. "How's he doing, by the way?"

"They got his arm back on. He'll be fine."

"Oh, good." Hikari leaned his head backwards. "Look, I already told you why I'm doing what I'm doing. Country's messed up. Heroes are messed up. I'm just the guy trying to un-mess the whole situation so I can regain some sense of normalcy in my life, whatever that means anymore."

A harsh scoff escaped Kyomu. "And running around with that hand guy, Shigaraki, was it? You think running around with him is the best solution?"

"I don't know if you noticed, Kyomu, but I'm a villain. Like it or not, regardless of the truth, I'm a villain." Hikari gestured to himself. "And Shigaraki's... yeah, he acts like a man-teen a bunch of the time, but him and his League are the only organized group of villains in the whole country. The only reasonably organized one, anyways. And our goals coincide. It was either join up with them, go it alone, or go back to prison." He lowered his arms. "What else was I supposed to do, Kyomu? Go back to prison? I'm not doing that. You're not there." His voice grew quiet. "You're the only reason I'm even doing any of this."

That got Kyomu quiet. He knew his brother's reasons well enough. He'd certainly said them enough to get the message across. And he couldn't blame him. Not truly, especially considering it was his fault Hikari was in this situation to begin with.

"I'm sorry," he said, guilt layered in his tone. "You had to spend so long in prison, and now all these heroes are hunting you. You're living with a bunch of villains and I, I..."

"Hey. I said it wasn't your fault, didn't I?" Hikari gave his brother a light smile and patted his shoulder. "You were young. You didn't even know you had a Quirk or what it did. It was an honest mistake, plain to see. Well, to us, anyways. To everybody else and the legal system it'd be villainous." His tone had darkened briefly, but soon went back to the previous playful tone. "You're my brother. You didn't deserve that. So don't worry about me taking the hit."

"You didn't deserve it, either," Kyomu muttered.

"Yeah, probably not. I mean, you still lied to the police about it, but hey."

Kyomu's body straightened. "I-I didn't, I mean, I did but the situation was really- I panicked and th-the cop was really overbearing-"

A laugh coming from the white-dressed teen quieted the black-dressed one. "Man, it's cool," he said. "Worked for the best anyways. Helped solidify my lie."

"Mm." Kyomu shakily nodded. "Thanks, for... you know. Just, thanks."

"Don't mention it. Seriously, don't. You never told anyone, right? Because it's all for nothing if you did."

He shook his head. "No. Nobody."

"Awesome." Trying to lighten the mood, Hikari clapped his hands loudly together. "So, enough about me! Hero school, huh? What's the deal with that?"

"Oh, UA." Sighing heavily, Kyomu leaned forwards. "Well, if it isn't obvious enough, I'm on the hero track. UA seemed like a good place to go to, so I applied. Breezed through all the tests and got in no problem." He glanced at his brother. "You'd be surprised how laid back everybody in my class is considering how prestigious that school is. And how rich. You'd get sick if I told you how much money that school throws around. It's insane."

"I bet," Hikari chuckled. "But seriously? Woulda thought everybody in that class would act... I dunno, preppy."

"Eh, there's at least two hardasses in that class, but even they're coming around." Kyomu held up two fingers. "Already told you about one; you punched his dad out. Haven't actually talked to him much. Other's this girl that can make stuff outta her body's lipids. They both got in on recommendations, too, so maybe that's why. And dude, I'm telling you, she stores all that fat in her chest exclusively. She has to. I just- her breasts just shouldn't be that big. It's insane." He shook his head at his brother's growing grin. "C'mon, don't make that face."

"What face? I'm not making any face," Hikari teased. "Just didn't realize your interest lies in those kinda things."

Kyomu groaned. Already he was regretting even starting up this topic. "It's not my fault her boobs take up half of my vision whenever I face her to have a conversation. Surprised her spine hasn't snapped in half from the sheer weight of those things yet." He groaned once more. "But anyways, yeah. That's the uptight people. Oh, and there's Iida, too, but he's more weird than uptight." He paused. "Okay, he's a little uptight. But in a... weirdly friendly way? I dunno."

"Mm. How about the rest of the class?" Hikari asked. "They ostracize you yet?"

"You know what? Surprisingly not!" Hikari's eyes lit up at Kyomu's exclamation. "I don't know what the deal is. Maybe it's because they're mature or because they're all strong too, or maybe I just happened to land in the one class in the world not full of jerks, but everybody there is just... nice. So much nicer than anybody else I ever met besides you and some of the kids at the orphanage I live at."

Hikari tilted his head to the side. "That so?"

"Yeah, completely. They treat me like an actual person and not like a freak like everybody else did. I... really like them all."

"I see. And the orphanage?"

Kyomu tilted his hand from side-to-side. "Eh, it's not the worst place. Other than the lady who runs it I'm the oldest guy there, so all the other kids kinda look up to me. Barely ever get a moment's peace there, but it's a life. Better than being in a box for ten years at any rate."

The white-haired teen let out a "tsk" sound. "That's fair," he grumbled, smirking all the while. "Anyways, I'm happy you didn't suffer alone all these years. I made the right choice. Kinda jealous, actually. Everybody in that class sounds really cool." He poked Kyomu's shoulder. "But enough about them. I want to hear about you. Why are you trying to become a hero?"

"Oh, that's easy. If I become a hero it'll be easier to kill villains."

The tension that had been growing lax between the two of them suddenly had become very taut. Kyomu's face remained completely calm while Hikari's conversely, went rigid. Finally, he coughed into his hand and regarded his brother with a questioning look.

"You're... you're going to do what?"

"... I did some research on that guy that broke into our house that night," Kyomu said. "The one that stabbed mom and dad. His name was Hirose Kenji. He broke into the houses of heroes and stole stuff. Occasionally stabbed them like he did out parents with his Quirk." His head slowly turned to his brother. "You know he got convicted of that crime two times before he made it to our house?"

Hikari remained silent, taking in the information and slowly folding folding his hands over his lap. By contrast, Kyomu continued to talk.

"It shouldn't have happened," he stated. "Hirose. That guy should've stayed in prison after the second time, hell, the first time he got convicted. But he didn't. He got out and kept doing it over and over. What good are heroes if they don't keep the villains they catch locked up? Or kill them so they don't do it ever again?"

"Heroes don't kill," Hikari argued. "I mean, geez, prisons barely kill anymore. When's the last time a death sentence was even carried out."

"Years. This 'new age of peace' is so peaceful something so 'barbaric' is seen as unnecessary. And because of that our parents are dead and you're a villain."

Rage wasn't a look Hikari was accustomed to seeing in his brother. Even as children when they were picked on he hadn't been overly angry. When their parents were dead right in front of him he'd been more scared than angry. His Quirk attacking like that had been reflexive and nothing more. Even at USJ when his friends were being threatened and his friend's arm was cut off he hadn't looked enraged. Upset, sure, maybe even angry.

What Hikari saw here though wasn't anything close to anger. A smoldering rage set behind his dark blue eyes as his hands tightened and relaxed over and over. It was the darkest he'd ever seen his brother. And what's worse is that the look in his eyes were familiar.

It was almost the same look he saw Shigaraki give every time he saw a picture of All Might. But whereas that look was almost manic in its rage, Kyomu's was cold. Almost calculating in its calmness. Like comparing a bubbling volcano to an underground river of magma under a calm lake.

"Heroes are wrong. They take villains too lightly. They were willing to lock you up for so long but they let a monster like that guy loose twice. It's sick." He sharply stood up to his feet. "You're right, Hikari. This society is terrible at labeling villains. It's also terrible at treating villains. So I'm going to do what other heroes aren't willing to do and I'm just gonna kill the villains. Then there'll be no chance every villain I kill will hurt somebody else. I'm never going to let what happened to us happen to anybody else."

"And you're just gonna be a hero so you can go around killing villains, huh?" Hikari mused. "I don't know how well that'll fly with the law. Or literally anybody."

"Being a hero just makes things easier," Kyomu reasoned. "Gives me leeway with my Quirk, gives me sources on villain whereabouts. Makes it easier to find them. And with my Quirk I can get rid of any body or evidence I wanted."

It was now Hikari's turn to scoff. "Oh, and you think killing is real easy, huh? You think just because you accidentally offed our parents and Hirose you-"

"I've killed twenty-two people in the last five years. I'm capable."

The white-haired teen's voice died in his throat. "You what?" he whispered.

"I made my decision around ten, after I accidentally killed somebody who tried to mug me. After that I practiced a bit over the years. Once every few months I'd slip out and hunt around for a crook or mugger or something. I killed them with my Quirk. Cut them apart with portals or just dropped them into Void. And every time they'd turn up missing. Police'll never find a body that doesn't even exist in this dimension any more." He shrugged. "There was that one hero, too, but that was an accident."

"You killed a hero," Hikari flatly stated.

"He saw me kill a villain," Kyomu defended. "It wasn't even a big deal. He was a small-time guy, nobody anybody would care about. He saw me drop a body through a portal so I created a portal that cut him in half." He held his arms out to the side. "People go missing all the time for various reasons. The people I kill just become a statistic. They'd never suspect me."

The Light-user became silent for a long moment, looking down at his feet with his hands clasped together. He almost wished he hadn't heard that. Not that his brother was a killer, but that he was so willing to kill. Eager, even.

"Look. Brother. I don't blame you for becoming a villain. That's on me. And no matter what happens, I could never hurt you even if you become one of the worst villains in the world." Kyomu turned his back to his brother. "I'll even stay away from your League, but if you or them attack my friends again, I can't make promises. Every other villain, though? I'll kill them. I'll erase them from existence. Because nobody else will."

"... It's the fault of the heroes in the first place for releasing that villain," Hikari weakly argued. "Can't you see that they're the wrong ones? Villains do what villains do, but the heroes are the ones that... can't you just leave them?" He desperately asked. "J-just leave that hero school and come with me? To the League? We can- we can kill All Might, change society into one that properly deals with villains. We could be together finally." A few tears fell freely from his crimson eyes. "You... killing villains like that isn't a permanent solution. There'll always be villains. And as long as that man is alive the rules won't change. So please."

"Sorry. My mind's made up." A black portal opened in front of Kyomu. "Besides, I don't think I could stand to be in the same room with a bunch of villains all the time. I'd get sick." He placed a single foot through the portal, though he briefly looked back at Hikari. "Bye for now. Love you. Thanks for the talk."

He stepped through the portal, the darkness closing around him. Hikari had reached a hand out for his brother, but by then it was too late. He was gone.

The hand slowly lowered back to the bench, a final tear splashing down next to it. Slowly the hand started to shake and clench into a fist, wisps of light slowly curling around his arms.

"Damn heroes... damn All Might..."

* * *

The bar was the exact same when he came back. Kurogiri standing behind the bar cleaning a glass. Shigaraki sitting down at the bar and slumped over it. It was the sight Hikari had grown accustomed to ever since joining the League.

Right now, though, he didn't feel like appreciating the sight.

"You've returned," Kurogiri noted upon Hikari entering. He slowly closed the door behind him, giving the mist man a rigid nod as he approached the bar.

Shigaraki, having been roused by Kurogiri's greeting, rose his head up to look at Hikari. "Oh, hey. Your little pow-wow with your bro go okay?" he mumbled, trailing Hikari as he stepped to the other side of the bar.

"Yeah," Hikari hollowly answered. "He's doing fine."

"Huh. That's surprising. You messed him up pretty bad."

The teen shrugged. "He's pretty tough. It's to be expected." He copied Shigaraki by leaning over the bar, looking to the side at the leader of the League. "He said no to joining us, though. He shouldn't be a problem, but if he is, I'll deal with it. Don't worry."

He looked down. There was a poster of All Might partially disintegrated on the bar. It was a sight that caused so much distaste to build up in Hikari that he almost gagged out.

All Might. The one who built and maintained this age of peace and solidified the hero society. The same society that released killers. That made him a villain. That made his brother a killer. That ruined their lives.

"Hey. Shigaraki." Hikari tapped on the bar. "How's the plan for killing All Might going?"

He shook his head. "Right now it's just the three of us and Sensei, Shinka. We can't really do much of anything right now. So we're gonna be focused on recruitment for a bit. I'm thinkin' less quantity and more quality this time around. Try a different approach." He gave the teen an inquisitive look. "Why? You eager to get another shot in at the meathead?"

"Mm. You know there was a time, even when I was about to kill the guy, when I was a bit reluctant to do so." He rose a hand towards the All Might poster. It disappeared when a white beam of light shot out from his palm and disintegrated it completely.

"Now I just want to rip his heart out."


	15. Chapter 15

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Arc 3-** **Rebellion**

 **Episode 15- A brief training interim.**

* * *

"It's too soon."

"I'm tellin' ya, man. It ain't."

"But we _just_ recovered from the whole USJ thing and- and it's so close to the start of the semester, I just don't think that-"

"Kyomu, they've had this event scheduled before the start of the year like every year since UA's been hosting the Sports Festival. They're not gonna delay it because our whole class got our asses kicked on a botched field trip."

He wanted to argue more, but with a resigned grunt Kyomu conceded to Sen's point, and proceeded to slump onto his desk. Others were chatting excitedly around him since the news hit whereas he remained deep in thought.

The Sports Festival. He'd never even heard of it until Midoriya explained it to him after Aizawa- the class had been thrilled in him coming into class so soon after the attack, even if he was covered in bandages- walked into class the day after the recovery of USJ to announce the Festival was being held next week. A competition in which all the first years of UA would compete with each other on the first day, the second years the second, and third the third. Naturally the only one that mattered to Kyomu was the first. And what those competitions entailed were up in the air, as apparently they changed the competitions every year to keep variety up and to not make things stale.

According to Midoriya, however, it always ended with a tournament in which students fought against once another. And almost always those students were the ones in the hero course, as they were the only ones taught how to fight. Everybody else, such as the business and support students, usually dropped out in the first round of contests.

If Kyomu was being completely honest with himself, he wasn't exactly too thrilled with the whole idea. He was all for competition, but he didn't like the idea of fighting his classmates in a sanctioned brawl. Especially one that would be televised nationally and in front of stands full of thousands of people.

It was that detail alone that had him scared.

Fighting in front of the whole class during All Might's combat simulation was one thing. He'd been nervous, but he managed to keep his cool throughout the entire ordeal. In front of the whole country, though? He wasn't too sure. He hated crowds in general nowadays. He hated scrutiny in general- likely a side effect from all his previous classmates and peers despising him. And it was because everybody in this class liked him that he was fine doing whatever in front of them.

The whole country was a very big step from a class full of twenty-odd people.

And to his utter shock there wasn't a single other person in the class who was dreading the upcoming festival like he was. No, they were all just so _excited_ at the prospect of competing against each other. For fighting and "testing their limits" as Kirishima continued to so-boldly proclaim. And most of it came from the fact that, as up and coming heroes, it was a chance for everybody in the class to show the world, and most importantly the country's hero agencies, who they were and what they could do. A "demonstration of their abilities" as Kyomu had put it. Do good enough and one was liable to be scouted by the bigger agencies, which lead to bigger job shadow opportunities and maybe, just maybe, a chance at becoming a sidekick in a large agency to get a running start on their hero career once they graduated.

All well and good for anybody who could use all that. Kyomu wasn't concerned with working with a big agency. If anything, he wanted to become independent as quickly as possible upon graduating. A loner. Somebody who worked by themselves and kept away from the fame and media- much like their teacher did. Notoriety and the fact he planned on using the perks gained by being a hero to secretly kill villains didn't mix. Fame was _detrimental_ to his goal. As was working closely with others.

He was still going to win the Festival, however, if only for the bragging rights.

"Mmm?" He rolled his head on his desk to look over in Midoriya's direction. He was sitting in an odd way and there was a small crowd of students around him. "What's Mido over there doing?" he wondered.

"He's doing what people in the exercise world call 'air sitting'," Sen explained. "An old and ancient practice where one exercises the core of their body by sitting in the air a couple centimeters above the actual seat."

"... Is it actually an ancient art?"

Sen rolled his eyes. "Pfft, not a chance. Everybody over there is acting like it is, though."

Indeed they were. The usual two that hung around Midoriya, Iida and Uraraka, were positively beaming at the small exercise the short student was doing in the middle of class. Even Kirishima and Kaminari were crowding around him, congratulating Midoriya on dedicating himself to his physical well being and vowing to show the same amount of determination, if not wholly exceed it, in training for the Sports Festival.

It was utterly baffling to Kyomu.

"All Might could walk through the door right now and give the best motivational speech in his life and it wouldn't galvanize everybody's resolve as much as Midoriya working out by sitting weirdly. He starts doing squat thrusts and we're all doomed," Kyomu exclaimed in an exasperated huff. "I-it doesn't make any sense. Does it make any sense to you, Sen? I truly don't get it."

Sen shrugged. "Eh, Midoriya's work ethic has always been really good. Lotta people in the class admire the effort he puts into this class," Sen explained. "He'd be the perfect hero student if he didn't, you know, pulverize his bones every time he threw a punch."

"Yeah, I-" Kyomu's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, how's the Festival gonna work out for him? We're gonna be using our Quirks against one another, right? What happens if he breaks his bones halfway through the Festival?"

His bald friend shrugged again. "That's for him to figure out I guess," he said. "But anyways, we got two whole weeks to train before this Festival hits. You got some big training regimen in mind? I'm fairly certain everybody else in the class is gonna be doing something in the way of training before the big event."

"Eh... I got something in mind. Gonna get on it as soon as I get home."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Sen nodded his head towards the homeroom entrance. "There's a crowd there."

Indeed there was. A very large crowd of UA students had congregated right in front of the door, blocking any and all ways outside of the class. Unless, of course, the students of class 1-A decided to circumvent this by jumping out the window. Kyomu didn't think anybody would opt for this option seeing as nobody was heading over to the window.

"What's their problem?" the Void-user muttered. "Don't tell me Mineta did a panty raid on a bunch of students and they all came here looking for him."

"Dude, there's guys out there, too," Sen pointed out.

"I'm not judging his preferences."

"You really think Mineta, _Mineta_ , would steal a guy's underwear?"

It was a question Kyomu only had to think a second about to get his answer. Visions of the lascivious looks Mineta gave to his female classmates and the number of inappropriate pictures of women he'd occasionally spotted in the short student's binder were the first to cross through his head. Half the things Mineta said followed soon after, at which point Kyomu shook his head.

"You got a real good point there."

"They're here to sniff out the competition." Blue and orange eyes turned to the side where Bakugo sat at his desk, hunched over with his backpack in hand. "We're the ones who risked our lives against villains during the USJ attack. They wanna get a feel for what they'll be going up against in the upcoming Festival."

The tone of voice he had used was one that had caused Kyomu's eyes to raise. For as long as he'd known Bakugo, he'd only seen three sides of him: completely quiet, screaming his head off at someone or something, usually Midoriya, or more rarely he would formulate clipped sentences if he was especially aggravated at something. A kind of cold fury that he tried to keep contained. He often failed in this endeavor.

He'd been especially quiet after the events of USJ, however. Even more strangely was the fact that Bakugo refused to so much as make eye contact with Kyomu ever since. Admittedly the two hadn't had much in the way of interaction, but the fact that he was being actively ignored was something Kyomu could plainly see.

But that was a situation for a later time. Right now he had people blocking his way out.

He made his way past all his classmates and right to the open door of the homeroom, where all mob of UA students were situated. There wasn't anything in the way of malicious intent as far as he could see. Just curious looks and some hushed whispers here and there as Kyomu stood there and stared at all of them.

He waited five second, and nothing happened. "Can you please move?" he asked. "I wanna go home."

Nobody moved.

"You can move on your own or I can move you myself." A bluff, a very obvious one at that, but he hoped it would get at least enough students to move so he could squeeze by. Alas, nobody moved a muscle.

The window was looking really tempting to him by now.

"Oh, that's no way for a hero-in-training to be talking now, is it?"

Kyomu's eyes turned to the right side of the crowd. A student with wild, purple hair and eyes that could give Aizawa a run for his money for how tired they looked stepped forwards in front of the students. Purple eyes with white pupils gave Kyomu a relaxed look of contempt while Kyomu kept his expression neutral.

"I'm not a very good hero," Kyomu said. "Or one in training, for that matter."

The student rolled his head to the side. "Then why'd you go for the hero course if you're not gonna give it your all into becoming a hero?"

A beat passed between the two and the students, those both outside and inside the homeroom, with Kyomu looking from the left and right side in a confused manner before facing the purple-haired student once more. "Is that- why- why are we having this conversation right now? The teachers set you up for this or-?"

"We're having this conversation because I wanted to see what the _great_ class 1-A was bringing to the Sports Festival," he interrupted, giving Kyomu what had to be the most passive-aggressive and exhaustive glare he'd ever seen in his entire life. "And to be completely honest, I'm disappointed in what I'm seeing. Here I thought the class that fought off bloodthirsty villains would look tougher than this. But I guess you don't have to be tough to bleed into unconsciousness so you can sleep through a fight."

Kyomu very nearly bristled at the remark that was obviously aimed at him. And to make matters even worse there were a couple of snickers from the unknown students surrounding them, which only furthered his ire. Even so, he took a deep breath to calm the flash of hot anger that briefly went through him as he kept his eye contact with the strange student level.

"Let's start over," Kyomu suggested. "I'm Shinka Kyomu. What's your name?"

"Shinso." There wasn't an ounce of emotion to be heard in his voice.

"Well, Shinso, is there a reason why you're antagonizing my class right now?"

"Antagonizing?" A dry laugh left Shinso's lips as he shook his head. "I'm not antagonizing anybody. I already told you why I'm here; I'm scoping out competition." He leaned his body backwards. "Not everybody was lucky enough to be born with a destructive Quirk, y'know? And the hero course admittance exam was unfairly skewed in favor towards those with highly destructive Quirks, as I'm sure you know seeing as you placed top in that exam. Those of us that had good Quirks for hero work but not for smashing hunks of metal got booted into general ed. courses. Rumor has it though that those that do good in the Sports Festival might have a chance at getting transferred to the hero course." He leered back forwards and nodded to the students in the 1-A homeroom. "And those that do poorly might get transferred out. See what I'm getting at?"

He could almost hear the flinching made by some of his classmates in the class behind him. The worst part was that Kyomu wasn't even sure if what Shinso was saying was a threat or not, or if it was that there was any ground to it.

But he didn't have the patience to even entertain the thinly-veiled threat of a student who looked like he suffered from narcolepsy. Nor the time, as his regular train would be leaving soon. And he honestly doubted anybody in his class could do so poorly as to be transferred out due to a sporting event. Especially after USJ. Mineta had a better chance of getting out than this student getting in, and from what Kyomu heard Mineta actually helped to restrain villains during the attack.

"Well, good luck with that I guess." A black portal opened in front of Kyomu which he stepped through. He stepped through a second one two meters away at the back of the student crowd and began to walk away, hands tucked in his pocket and his body tilted forwards.

He almost thought he could leave it at that, too, until he heard Shinso call after him.

"I think I'd have a better chance at becoming a hero than somebody whose brother is a no-good villain."

Everything from Kyomu's though processes to his movement came to a screeching halt as the words entered his ears. The student crowd froze and he'd even heard a few gasps from inside of the 1-A homeroom. Kyomu had to spend a second comprehending what he had just heard, and then another five to calm himself down as another flood of anger went through him.

 _"What does he know?"_ Pictures and scenarios went through his head. Him opening a portal next to Shinso and dislocating his jaw by punching him, him throwing Shinso off the UA roof, and him opening a portal under his feet and watching Shinso scream as he fell into Void were only a few of the pictures that flashed through his head as he closed his eyes to calm himself. And those were the most tame images he saw. He did his best to restrain himself, however, and thankfully succeeded as he turned his head around to meet the student's gaze once more. _"Don't attack him,"_ he told himself. _"You'll just prove him right and get in trouble. And obviously don't kill him."_

"If your Quirk really was hero-material, Shinso, then you would be in class 1-A or 1-B right now," Kyomu said. That one single statement had caused the small smirk that had been growing on Shinso's face to drop. "If you wanna prove me wrong, then get far enough in the Sports Festival to fight me."

He left it at that and briskly walked down the hallway, both to work off his anger and to make sure he made it to his train on time.

* * *

 _Munch!_

 _"These chips are pretty decent,"_ Kyomu thought to himself as he leaned back in his chair, feet propped up on the table that the orphanage computer rested on. The chips themselves were given by Midoriya as thanks for saving All Might's life as USJ. A small snack his mother had absentmindedly packed for him, and one he couldn't consume thanks to the strict diet he was one. So, with nothing better to do with them, he'd given it to Kyomu as a thank you present at lunch as opposed to throwing it away.

Of course there were a lot more tears at the time.

* * *

 _"Um..." Kyomu glanced at the bag of chips in his hand and back at Midoriya, who stood in front of him with tears falling freely from his eyes. He was glad enough that this was happening outside the lunchroom and not inside the cafeteria itself where everybody could see, but it didn't make this any less awkward. For Kyomu, at the very least. He was almost certain Midoriya was shameless when it came to shedding tears in public._

 _It didn't make him feel any less awkward._

 _"Why did you just shove a bag of chips in my hand?" he finally asked._

 _"M-my mother gave me it by mistake as a little get well gift I guess, but I can't eat them. I'm on dietary plan for improving my body," he explained. "A-a-and All Might, he... he told me your brother would have killed him if you hadn't intervened. And even after your body was all... broken and bleeding, you still... you still managed to find it in yourself to fight even though I went down in one kick...!"_

 _Kyomu was almost worried Midoriya would die of dehydration if the volume of tears falling from his eyes increased._

 _"I think you're blowing it out of proportion," he stated. "I mean, it was nothing. We're going here to become heroes, right? Something like what I did should be commonplace. You shouldn't be rewarding me for something we'll be doing on a regular basis in the future. Probably. I dunno."_

 _He was so hoping that would get him to stop crying. But the tears only increased, and with that Kyomu's anxiety over the whole situation._

 _"You're right, but even so, I still want you to have them." There was a firm tone in his voice that told Kyomu he wouldn't take "no" for an answer. "If not for saving somebody I deeply admire, than at least take the chips as a get well present. That's what they originally were for, after all."_

 _"... I don't follow."_

 _"You know, with your, well... brother and all..." Midoriya rubbed at the side of his arm. "I just wanted you to know that, I don't know, if you ever need somebody to talk to about it or something, you have friends who'll listen."_

"He sounds like All Might," _Kyomu thought._ "Ugh. I'm not good at this kind of thing. What am I supposed to say?"

 _He'd never take Midoriya up on that offer as far as he was currently aware. And though he knew it wasn't the student's fault, he was almost insulted by the gift being offered to him. In all honesty it was almost annoying how All Might and now Midoriya was trying to pity him for all the wrong reasons._

 _But he couldn't blame them for trying. It wasn't like they knew any better, and he surely couldn't set them straight. So he just had to endure it until the matter was dropped._

 _"Okay, I'll take the chips. Sheesh." Stuffing the bag into his backpack, Kyomu gestured towards the cafeteria door. "You wanna go eat lunch now? Everybody else is already there."_

 _He nodded. "Uh-huh! Sure!"_

 _"Cool. And Midoriya?"_

 _"Yeah?"_

 _"Please do us both a favor and wipe the tears away. It's gonna look really weird if we walk in there with you lookin' like that."_

* * *

It was most definitely the most harrowing experience he'd had all day.

Fingers flew over the keyboard as a new window opened on the screen of the computer. Specifically, a chat room. A chat room some of his classmates had especially made for their own class.

A frown began to form on his face as the chat room loaded. Everyone but him had made a profile on this site, and not only that but they all had apps on their phones for them to immediately find their way into the chatroom whenever they wanted. All except for him, which had been intently noted by the more active members of the chat room. His reply had been a curt one: "I live in an orphanage; I don't have fifty-thousand yen to blow on a phone."

He did have access to a computer, though. So he thought he may as well make a profile to try it out and see what all the excitement over this was for.

Eventually, he'd made it to the point where he could make his actual profile, and, deciding to be as pragmatic as possible, set his chat name to his actual name (VoidBoy, as was suggested by Ashido, would not be used. Even if she had pleaded him and he had gotten a single snort of amusement out of the name).

"Alright, let's just see why everybody is on this thing all the time." He could see from multiple indicators at the top of the chat room that multiple members of his class were already there. At least he wasn't alone in this endeavor. "Okay, so I just type whatever I want here and send...?"

* * *

Shinka: Okay, so I just type whatever I want here and send...?

* * *

He blinked in surprise when he saw his message go in the chat room, and soon a sense of satisfaction came over him upon his success. Chatting on this wasn't so difficult at all. And to his delight people were actually responding to it.

* * *

Midoriya: Shinka! You figured out how to use the chat room!

Iida: I congratulate you on joining us in online social interaction!

Shinka: You two are talking like I just figured out how to put a shirt on. I clicked on a website and spent twenty seconds making a chat profile. It wasn't rocket science.

Shinka: So who else uses this thing anyways? I know most of our class uses it, but you can't tell me the stiffies frequent this place.

Midoriya: The... stiffies...?

Shinka: You know. Bakugo. Todoroki. Tokoyami on his more quiet days. The people that don't really talk to people. I'd lump Koda in there too, but he's just shy.

Tokoyami: I'm right here, Shinka.

Shinka: Oh hi, Tokoyami. So it's just you three?

Iida: Aoyama was here earlier, but left for what he called "a dazzling performance marred in sweat". I think he meant training.

Shinka: I can never tell with that guy in all honesty. Is he even french? He says a bunch of french words all the time but I don't even know if he's ever been there. I can't even ethnically pin him down because he looks so weird too, you know?

Midoriya: Aoyama just likes expressing his... cultural preferences. And I think his costume and Quirk reflect that wonderfully. Even if he is a bit... flamboyant at times.

Shinka: Flamboyant's a word, I guess. Not the one I would use, but hey.

Midoriya: ?

Midoriya: Anyways, Todoroki made a profile but never uses it, and Bakugo rarely comes here. I don't think you're gonna find him here today, though. Or for a couple weeks for that matter. They're all training.

Shinka. Training?

Midoriya: Yeah. For the UA Sports Festival? The one we talked about in class today? I explained it all to you?

Shinka: I vaguely recall such an occurrence.

Midoriya: ...

Iida: ...

Tokoyami: ...

Midoriya: Well, they're all training their bodies in preparation for the Festival. And not just them, either: the entire class is getting ready for when it comes in two weeks. Even Uraraka was going on about all the body training she was thinking about doing. She's really pumped up for the Festival!

Iida: Which reminds me! I'm almost late for a track excursion I planned ahead of time! Need to keep my legs and Quirk strong for the Sports Festival, after all! Until next time!

\- Iida has left the chat-

Tokoyami: I need to go, to. Dark Shadow has been antsy about training since the Festival was announced. He's going to get extremely cranky if we don't go soon.

Shinka: Wait, your Quirk thinks? Like, has its own personality and everything? All this time I thought you were talking through it!

Tokoyami: No, it's its own separate entity. Actually gets upset with me whenever I ignore him. And once you get him going he's quite the conversationalist provided you can get through his... we'll say course language.

Shinka: So you have another person... shadow... sapient phantom-bird Quirk attached to you?

Tokoyami: Yes.

Shinka: ... So is it ever awkward between you two whenever you're naked in the shower?

\- Tokoyami has left the chat-

Midoriya: Shinka!

Shinka: It was a valid question. I was being completely serious at that moment, and frankly him just leaving like that was rude. I feel insulted.

Midoriya: I still think you should apologize when next you see him.

Shinka: Yeah, fine. I was just curious. So you doin' some high-intensity workouts too, or what?

Midoriya: Of course! I have a full body-improvement training regimen all wrote out and everything for me to follow! I've been exercising constantly for our hero studies. The Sports Festival is just another reason to push myself to go even further beyond!

Shinka: Ah-huh.

Midoriya: How about you? What are you planning?

Shinka: Well right now I'm sitting in front of a computer eating some awkwardly-gifted chips. Probably gonna do that for a while longer and then sleep.

Midoriya: Uh... but you're gonna do some training tomorrow, right?

Shinka: Wasn't planning on it.

Midoriya: But you're at least going to get some training done some time before the Sports Festival, aren't you?

Shinka: Maybe I'll do a push-up or two.

Midoriya: Shinka, this is serious.

Shinka: I am being serious. I don't exercise on principal. I'm not gonna break the streak and stop now.

Midoriya: But you look almost as fit as the rest of us in class! You're a bit thin in comparison, sure, but... but you can't say you don't exercise at all with that body!

Shinka: I got good genes. You can't tell from your computer but I shrugged.

Midoriya: Good genes just doesn't give- Shinka, the Sports Festival is an extremely important event for us. For our future hero careers. Everybody in our class and in even in the other classes are going to be at their best in the festival because of the opportunities it provides. You're basically shooting yourself in the foot if you don't prepare.

Shinka: I'm already as prepared as I can get.

Midoriya: How so?

Shinka: What do you mean how so? I could do it right now if I wanted to. There's not exactly going to be any significant change between now and then just because I pumped some iron or whatever it is you're gonna be doing.

Midoriya: So, for the sake of hypothetical speaking, if your brother was in our class and was competing in the Sports Festival along with the rest of us, you can confidently say that you would be ready to compete on even ground?

Shinka: ...

Shinka: ...

Shinka: You're treading on some real thin ice there, Midoriya.

Midoriya: Nobody in class has been mentioning it because I'm sure they wanted to spare your feelings, but your brother did overpower you at USJ.

Shinka. I didn't ask for my feelings to be spared.

Midoriya: And that's fine, Shinka, but you still lost to him. We all did. And just because you're fine with you current level of growth doesn't mean the rest of us are. Kacchan is training right now not just to be better ready for the Sports Festival, but so that when he becomes a hero and encounters powerful villains like your brother he can be stronger and actually defeat them. It's the same reason Kirishima and Todoroki and everybody else in the class is training. Because we're nowhere near the level of a pro hero as we are right now. Our entire duration at UA is so that we just stand on the same field as the pros and one day become one.

Midoriya: So you saying that you don't need any training, that you don't need to grow any to beat us at that Festival... that is what's insulting, Shinka. To both yourself and to the entire class. Because if a villain as young and as inexperienced as your brother managed to defeat you, then you're not going to cut it as a real hero in the future. Plain and simple.

Shinka: I could have beat him if I wanted.

Midoriya: But you didn't because your power is too lethal, right?

Shinka: ...

Midoriya: I've taken notes on the Quirks of all of our classmates, and that includes you, Shinka. I have a basic understanding of the mechanics behind it and I can garner a guess and say that if you were to use it against another living target in a strictly offensive way it would seriously maim if not kill, correct? Because you're the only one compatible with Void.

Shinka: What's your point?

Midoriya: My point is that you can't rely solely on your Quirk. No hero can, and the fact you were forced into a situation where you couldn't fully utilize your Quirk and lost just goes to prove you're not ready in any sense of the word. It's the same for all of us. It's the reason we're in school training to become heroes! And UA is a school completely dedicated to forcing us to grow and become strong enough to be heroes. It's a place only fit for those who take it seriously. So if you keep acting like this and blow off an opportunity like the Sports Festival, and you keep acting like you don't need to grow any more... well, you're practically spitting in the face of UA and everybody that gives it their all to be there. It makes it look like you don't belong there.

Shinka: I... you really think so?

Shinka: I see.

Shinka: I must look like a huge jerk now, huh?

Midoriya: !

Midoriya: I-I didn't mean to make you feel bad or anything, Shinka! I just... really take our hero courses seriously, you know? And you're not a jerk. You're one of the most talented students in our class, you're really nice and strong and your Quirk is amazing! And people in our class want to spare your feelings because we care about you. Really. You're a really great person. And I think you'll make a fantastic hero. I just don't want all those good qualities to go to your head and make you arrogant enough to slack off on the reason you're in UA in the first place. It isn't you.

Midoriya: And besides, if you don't train we'll all eventually get stronger than you and leave you behind in the dust. ;).

Shinka: Heh. You're a lot more assertive all the way over there in your room, locked away all safe and sound in front of a computer. You're usually just a shy, mumbling mess. Wouldn't have ever guessed you're the kind of person to put a winky face at the end of a message.

Midoriya: S-Shinka...!

Shinka: I'm teasing. But thanks. You've given me a lot to think about.

Midoriya: Any time, Shinka. I need to go now- training. But it was nice talking to you. We should do it more some time. I know Iida and Uraraka would appreciate you company, and you could even bring Sen!

Shinka: Maybe. Seeya, Midoriya.

Midoriya: See you later.

\- Midoriya has left the chat-

Shinka: Geez. Where's all that confidence of his in class?

\- Shinka has left the chat-

* * *

"So this Sports Festival is a big thing?"

"Indeed." Through the black mist that comprised Kurogiri's hand, Hikari could make out something that resembled a poster. And he was fairly confident there were even words printed on it, too, but the dark substance of whatever the mist man was comprised of was continually swirling in front of it, making it practically illegible.

Hikari would just ask for the poster so he could read it himself, but he didn't want to be rude to the man.

"It's a crock, the whole thing," Shigaraki mumbled from his bar stool right next to the two. "They make it this big, wide event where the entire nation gets to see a bunch of high schoolers kick the snot out of each other on TV. It's really just a big promotion for the hero agencies to scout out some potential." He slid an empty glass towards Kurogiri, who deftly caught it and began cleaning it. "Gonna be more crowded in that place than the stadiums in baseball season. Great seats, concession stands as far as the eye can see, might even be a kiddie game or two outside the stadium they're making."

Hikari nodded along to Shigaraki's explanation. "So... are we gonna do anything about it, or...?"

"Don't be a moron." The hand-wearing man shook his head. "We're still few in number. Besides, we wouldn't get anything out of it other than more attention than what we need at the moment. Place is gonna be crowded with heroes, anyways. We wouldn't last five seconds if we tried pullin' something."

"Then can I just go?"

Shigaraki cocked his head in confusion, as did Kurogiri. The two stared at Hikari in silence for a full five seconds before Shigaraki fully turned his body to face the teen.

"Why the hell would you want to go there after everything I just said?" he asked.

Hikari shrugged. "I just wanna go see my brother compete," he answered. "The first years are gonna be going at it on the Festival's first day, right? So that means Kyomu's gonna be out there. I wanna go root for him, and besides, I've never seen a sporting even like this before. Could be fun."

"Why not simply watch it from here?" Kurogiri suggested. "There's going to be countless channels and websites streaming the event in its entirety. I know Shigaraki planned on watching just to try and get a better understanding of the class of first years that bested us at USJ."

"Yeah, so you don't need to go all the way over there only to get captured by a passing hero," the leader added, waving a hand in Hikari's direction. "Just livestream it from a pirate site like I'm doing."

The teen gave Shigaraki a flat look. "You're petty enough to pirate the livestream? Just because we're villains doesn't mean we have to break every single law we encounter."

"You know how much they charge for the damn key to get into the official streams?" Shigaraki hissed. "It's outrageous. Pay-per-view back in the old days was a damn steal compared to what those websites charge, and I guarantee you half the people in Japan are gonna be pirating it anyways. It's not even villainy at that point; it's making a statement."

"A statement that you're too cheap to fork over fifteen-hundred yen for a stream key?"

"Oh, you wish it was that low..." he chuckled, catching a glass slid to him by Kurogiri. "You're still not going, though. Come on, you can watch it with me. I'll even let you into my room."

He knew it was a completely innocent offer, but the fact that Shigaraki's neutral tone of voice was so scratchy made the offer sound almost too creepy for Hikari to stand. He had to keep himself from shuddering just to avoid offending the man, and even then the pause he took had caused Shigaraki to tilt his head.

"Come on," Hikari pressed, "I'll be invisible the whole time. Nobody'll even know I'm there. I'll even bring you guys back some snacks if you ask me." He stuck a thumb out at a newspaper clipping pinned to the wall behind him. "Besides, we're still trying to track down that Stain guy you want to join us, so we're pretty much sitting on our hands in the meantime with nothing else to do."

And that was a whole other matter in of itself, and one that promised to be such a headache that Hikari just wanted to leave the matter for a later date. Why Shigaraki wanted to recruit a man like _that_ was unknown to the teen. A man labeled as a serial murderer. One that had a string of _hero murders_ wrapped in his name. And apparently those kill numbers were high enough to impress Shigaraki that they were now actively seeking him out to join.

He was happy Shigaraki was taking the quality over quantity thing seriously, but he wasn't a hundred percent certain about this one. But then again, they were villains. He doubted quality of life would ever go further than it already was.

"Alright." The white-haired teen's head snapped to Shigaraki when he gave a shrug. "Stay hidden, don't get caught, come back once the first years are done with their time in the limelight. And bring back some corn dogs. I kinda want some."

"If they have any cotton candy, I would like some," Kurogiri added.

"Didn't realize you had a sweet tooth there, Kuro." Chuckling lightly, Hikari hopped off his stool and made his way towards the bar's door. "Seeya soon. Thanks for letting me loose."

"Hey, there." Shigaraki knocked loudly on the bar. "Where you going?"

Hikari paused in front of the door, turning around to face the two villains. "To the Sports Festival?"

The mist man raised what was very possibly an arm. "It's not for another two weeks, Shinka. The stadium is still under construction."

"... Oh." The teen visibly deflated, shoulder slumping as an airy sigh escaped him. "Well what am I supposed to do until then?" His red eyes narrowed when Shigaraki slowly pulled out a small device and shook it in his direction.

A mobile gaming device.

Hikari shook his head. "No. I'm not playing that game again."

"Come on. I need another guy in the party and we already dumped all the points in your character into the stats that make him a high DPS-"

"That game cheats and it takes twenty minutes to kill one monster!"

"It wouldn't take so long if you actually listened to my advice and prepared for the battles beforehand."

"There's like a hundred different micro management systems in there! How do you expect me to-"

"Half the game's charm is in-"

With a deep sigh, Kurogiri continued to clean a glass as the two villains argued about the most trivial of matters. In today's case, a video game. As was the case most days in the League of Villains' hideout.

At least they kept things lively.

* * *

 _"Training. Growth. Improvement..."_ Kyomu couldn't help but yawn as he stared up at his room's ceiling, head resting in his hands and feet sprawled out in front of him. _"Improving my Quirk. My abilities. How in the world am I supposed to go about doing something like that?"_

The fact was that Midoriya's words had some impact on the black-haired teen, odd as it was. Of all the people in the world to say something to him that had actually changed his current outlook on himself, it was the second shyest person in the entire class. Who, ironically enough, was one of the most destructive. Maybe that's where it all fit in.

Regardless, Midoriya had a point. His Quirk needed to be like his brother's- more versatile. More options to work with. Maybe a way of incapacitating people instead of horribly mutilating and/or killing them.

That part was fine, but not in the presence of others.

And all this thinking about how to improve his Quirk would end up becoming wasted time if he didn't actually manage to think of anything. Because as it was he was drawing a blank.

Somebody tapping on his room's window wasn't helping.

"Eh?" He lifted his head up and turned towards the window. A familiar bald head was one the other side and incessantly tapping away on the glass. "Oh, hey, Sen." Kyomu gave a half-hearted wave and laid back down on the bed.

The tapping increased in fervor.

Groaning, Kyomu rolled out of the bed and stomped his way over to the window, only for him to carefully and meticulously undo the window's latch in an extremely slow and gentle fashion before violently opening the window. Sen had barely enough time to duck down so that he wouldn't be smashed across the face.

"Warn a guy before doin' that, geez..." Sen slowly stood back up to Kyomu's level. "Anyways, hey, dude! We found ya!" He took a step back to admire the building in front of him. "You mentioned what the name of this place was at some point, so we looked it up and found a route to it through a map app."

"... Why, though?" It seemed like a completely valid question to someone who arrives in front of your home completely unannounced, at least in Kyomu's eyes. If it were anybody else but Sen or possibly his brother he would have thought it was plain creepy. He'd had enough reservations when All Might had visited. "And also how did you find my room?"

Sen stuck a thumb out behind him. "Ah, you know, Shoji turned one of his arms into a big ear and listened for you. He says your heartbeat is a lot lower than most people's."

Quirking a brow, Kyomu stuck his head out the window and followed the thumb. Crouched between the orphanage walls and the small, chest-high stone wall that surrounded the building's perimeter was, in fact, Shoji. The student with the multiple arms. Behind him was Sero, the student whose arms doubled as tape dispensers, and behind him was Sato. The student whose power was to become more strong by consuming sugar.

For whatever reason, they were dressed in various ensembles of gym wear.

He had multiple questions, but Kyomu found himself hopping out of his room's window and crouching down along with everybody else before he could ask them. Sen, likewise, crouched down as well.

"What are you all doing outside my room crouched down like idiots for?" he demanded. "The most dangerous things here are a bunch of clingy orphans, an old lady with a rolled up newspaper or frying pan, depends of the time of day, and Natsuki's Filibuster Quirk."

Sen blinked. "... Whose Quirk and what?"

Kyomu sighed. "Yeah, he's one of the orphans. Has the amazing ability to talk extremely rapidly for long periods of time- I think we clocked him in at talking for fifty hours straight once. Hence its name: Filibuster." He shook his head. "He'll be an amazing politician if he ever becomes one when he grows up. Nothing'd ever get done, but I bet he'd make prime minister in no time."

"... Shinka, why are we talking about this?" Shoji inquired.

"I dunno. Why are we all sneaking around my orphanage?" Kyomu shot back.

"Well, y'know, with the whole Sports Festival coming and everything coming, everybody's getting some preparatory training in. Everybody's pretty much doin' their own thing but us." Sen gestured to himself and to the students behind him. "You didn't mention any plans either, so we thought we'd all get together. Get some team building and training in."

Kyomu nodded. "Ah-huh. I see. And you couldn't have, I dunno... asked me at school? Or walked through the front door and asked for me like a functioning human being? What kind of place do you think I live in?"

"We didn't wanna cause a bother. Plus you keep telling me stories about how clingy all the kids here are. They'd probably never let go of Shoji if they saw him."

"And what do I have to do with any of this?"

The four in front of him looked back at each other, growing increasingly nervous while mumbling something or such to each other quietly enough that Kyomu couldn't hear. They went to enough lengths that the mouth that had grown at one of the ends of Shoji's arm was extra small and hovered far away from Kyomu's position.

Just when Kyomu was about to clap his hands loudly to startle them, they broke away. Sero crouch-walked his way to the front of the pack, avoiding Kyomu's sight as he rubbed at his dispenser elbows nervously.

"So, uh, listen... we wanted to go to a gym, but, well, you know the rates those places charge to use the facilities and everything..." he mumbled, smiling sheepishly as Kyomu's eyes slowly narrowed. "We thought if we got enough people together we could maybe scrape enough together to go there, but we've got barely anything between any of us. So-"

"I'm broke," Kyomu deadpanned. "And the orphanage itself is barely scraping by. So unless you wanna go rob somebody, I don't think we're gonna cut it."

He was only half-joking when he told them that, unbeknownst to the group. There'd been many times he'd taken money from the bodies of small-time thugs he'd killed on one of his nightly training prowls, and most of that money usually went towards buying something for the orphans. Some present and candy and such. And on a few occasions he'd even hid the money somewhere for Mizo to find whenever the orphanage was especially struggling. That had been his main source of income for years now.

Unfortunately, he was currently tapped. And he didn't feel like killing somebody to go to a gym.

With a heavy sigh, the entire group slumped their shoulders. "Man, this is a bummer," Sato grumbled. "Can't go to a gym, can't use the UA workout facilities after school is out... what are we supposed to do now?"

"You guys were really looking forwards to this, huh?" Kyomu cupped his chin in his hand as the four in front of his gave slow, lethargic nods. "Oh, I see... well..."

He closed his eyes in thought. He was about as unenthusiastic about training even after Midoriya's pep talk, but even then he didn't want to see his classmates so let down by something like this. He looked between each and every one of them, thinking hard about something. It was when his eyes fell on Sero did an idea pop into his head.

Specifically, the idea came when he looked down at his elbows.

"Hey, it's not a gym, but I got an idea," Kyomu announced, drawing the attention of the whole group. "There's this abandoned construction site, like, five blocks away. I think they were making a building or something but stopped halfway for some reason, but all the building struts and everything are still there. If we took Sero's Tape Quirk I bet we could probably rig something together for us to use."

He was given a look of disbelief by all present. "You want us to work out with pieces of construction?" Shoji asked in an incredulous tone.

Kyomu shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

* * *

They'd all gone with Kyomu's idea in the end and headed towards the abandoned construction site.

The site itself looked about as much as one would suspect from the description: a square plot of sand-covered land with a half-made skeleton of a large building in the middle completely comprises of red building struts, with even more struts piled around in both loose piles and in neat stacks. There had been many inquiries made by the students to Kyomu regarding the legality of being here and if they were, in fact, trespassing. Kyomu had given a noncommittal shrug, saying he had no idea.

Apparently that had been good enough for them, and they had gotten to work immediately after. Sero had dispenses a sizable amount of tape from his elbows, and the rest had gotten to work by using the tape as rope to tie struts together and make rudimentary replicas of common exercise equipment.

It was incredibly shoddy, but altogether it was effective.

The end result was five students pulling on lengths of tape to lift up pieces of buildings struts, with the exception of Kyomu who opted to lift two and Shoji who lifted three. This was a process that had continued for five minutes before a long, drawn-out groan escaped from Kyomu.

"When you guys said training I figured it would have been more... Quirk-oriented, you know?" he said as he lifted his struts. "This lifting stuff ain't really doing it for me."

"We can only hone our Quirks under UA supervision until we get provisional licenses," Shoji stated. "It's illegal otherwise. Physical strength training is as much as we can do in the meantime."

And wasn't that the rub? Quirk improvement was the only reason Kyomu had even considered doing this in the first place. That couldn't happen, though because unlawful practice of Quirk usage wasn't lawful. One of the very reasons he practiced his Quirk on crooks in secret.

"I feel like you kind of get an unfair advantage with that, Shoji," Kyomu continued. "Y'know, since you're a Mutant-type and your arms are your Quirk. In fact, pretty much every Mutant-type gets that advantage since they can just work out their parts. Us Emitters, though? Can't do anything without drawing some eyes."

"Tell me about it," Sero grunted. "I think I overheard Tsuyu mention something about renting a swimming pool out to do laps in since she's, you know, got that Frog Quirk."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Kyomu exclaimed. "You know Ojiro probably strapped some dumbbells or something to his tail and he's working that out, and Jiro probably tied some weights to toothpick and is using them to work her earlobe jack things out. Everybody else is limited to physical like us 'cause they got stuck with a Transformation or Emitter Quirk. Hell, the only Quirk training any one of us has got done is you, Sero, and that was just so we could have some rope to tie all these struts up."

Besides Kyomu, Sen barked out a laugh as he relaxed his arms and lowered his own strut. "Ah, c'mon, Kyomu. You're only looking on the downside of things. Look at the positives here! Five sweaty guys in an industrial zone lifting together, bonding... I thought we could at least get some fun out of it. You know, get to know one another. Besides us two we don't really socialize that much in class."

"I bond plenty with the class," the Void-user argued. "Besides, what does it matter? I thought we were here to lift." He nodded his head towards his struts. "I'm... okay I'm not totally content with this, but it's something."

"Maybe we could do that thing middle schoolers do to get to know one another," Sato suggested. "We each say one thing about ourselves that nobody else knows about us. I'll start!"

Kyomu wanted very desperately to argue about how he didn't want to do such a thing and that they knew each other well enough as it was, but a glare shot to him by Sen quieted his objections. As such, he went back to lifting his building strut while keeping an attentive ear out for the people around him.

"I like to bake," Sato started. "It's more of a hobby than anything else, but I like it. Though I guess it isn't that surprising since I have this Quirk of mine, huh?"

Sen could hardly hold back a snort. "I know I'm not surprised," he said. "Lessee... I like to read a lotta manga?" He trailed off on the last word, as if unsure of himself. "I dunno if that counts since that's kinda generic-y. Does that count?"

"I say it counts," Kyomu said.

"Ah. Great." Sen turned to Sero. "How about you? You don't have a glue consumption addiction or something to feed your Quirk, do you?"

Sero's face scrunched up. "First, ew. Second, no." He looked up in thought. "Geez, I dunno. I think racing is pretty cool."

His fellow black-haired classmate turned to him. "Is that why your costume has that helmet that kinda looks like a racing helmet?" he asked.

"I guess." He shrugged. "I just thought it looked neat."

"I enjoy reading poetry." The suddenness of this statement combined with how unexpected its contents were drew the attention of everybody around the tall, multi-armed student. "It soothes me."

They all nodded extremely slowly as to not cause any offense. The very way he said those three words implied it was a great passion of his.

"I guess that puts me on the spot, huh?" Kyomu clicked his tongue. "My favorite color's black."

Sen rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. I think anybody in our class coulda guessed that. And black's not even a color; it's the absence of color."

"Don't start that with me," Kyomu warned. "I don't care about the technicalities. Everybody calls it a color. It's a color. So don't go and start saying-"

 _Riiiip!_

All eyes were drawn to the tape rope Shoji was holding, as a visible seam began to form in the middle of the rope that was holding up his share of buildings struts. The tape soon gave way with a loud _snap!_ , causing the struts he'd been lifting to crash to the ground. The loud, clanging sound this caused made everybody let go of their own ropes to cover their ears, which in turn caused more struts to fall down and create even more noise.

Five sets of hands slowly removed themselves from the owners' ears as they looked at the large mess of struts before them. Nobody said anything or made any movement for thirty full seconds, and finally Kyomu made the first by sending a withering glare over at Sero.

"What kind of tensile strength was your weird bio-tape registered at again?" he asked, tone completely dry and unamused.

Sero shrunk back from the scrutiny Kyomu and now the rest of the group was throwing at him. Quick to defend himself, he pointed at Shoji. "In my defense Shoji was lifting more than any of us were."

Shoji looked ready to retort, his arms waving threateningly behind him, but Kyomu stepped between the two. Shoji had opened his mouth- or whatever it was under that mask that Kyomu desperately hoped was a mouth- to retort, but the pleading look given to him by the black-haired teen caused him to hesitate. Likewise, everybody else had calmed down to listen to what he tried to say.

"Let's not get heated over something like this." He pointed over to the fallen struts. "Some struts fell and nobody got hurt. It's not like anybody else outside of us is gonna notice anyways." Kyomu crossed his arms, looking down at the ground. "It was a stupid idea anyways."

There were a few more heated glares between everyone, but after a long moment of silence the looks were dropped in exchange for exhausted sigh and slumped shoulder. Lots of shoulders in Shoji's case. And after casting a defeated look at the falling workout struts, Sen looked to Kyomu for help.

"So what do we do now?"

* * *

Following what had to have been the shortest and most disastrous workout activity Kyomu had ever partaken in, as well as the first one he'd ever done outside of school, he and the rest of his classmates had decided to climb to the top of the unfinished building, find the most stable building strut they could find so they could all sit down, and watch the setting sun.

It helped that Sato had apparently baked some snacks.

"You weren't kidding about baking." A soured look came across his face as he put the pastry he'd bitten into and a bottle filled with a bluish-green, viscous liquid. "It goes horrible with the protein shake, but good on you."

The shake had been Shoji's gift to the workout exercise that had lasted about seven minutes in reality.

"Heh, thanks." Another pastry, the third he'd had, went into Sato's mouth. "I just, uh, kinda wish this whole thing turned out better. Ya know?"

"Yeah, a hear ya." A loud sigh escaped Sero's lips. "I don't know, guys. Can you even get any noticeable results out of two weeks of training? Especially when we still have school and everything to do on top of that?"

Kyomu made an uncertain sound as he shook a flattened hand from side-to-side. He wasn't the expert on these kind of things, and based on the looks everybody else was giving neither was anybody else. He felt like it was something that one of them could have researched at some point, but such a thing would require effort. And after the last hour's fiasco he didn't feel like exerting that kind of effort.

"I don't know. I don't think I'm cut out for this whole 'training' thing," Kyomu said after a long moment of silence. "I've always just kinda figured things out on my own when I needed it. But Midoriya said some stuff to me. Said a bunch of things about me needing to better myself and that my Quirk needed some work." The protein shake was thrown away following a frustrated grunt from Kyomu. "But this training stuff sucks! Forget it. I'll go with option C- my option."

"Shinka, that was my mother's cup," Shoji admonished, a slightly dejected tone to his voice.

"Oh, whoops." A black portal opened up right under the cup before it hit the ground, the cup falling into Void. Kyomu shortly after opened a portal next to him, reaching in and pulling out a frozen, slightly cracked cup. "Just, uh, just let it thaw for a few hours and it should be fine. You know, minus the cracks."

Apprehensively, Shoji took the cup from Kyomu, and almost dropped it after feeling how cold the cup was. He muttered a word of thanks to the black-haired teen in a clipped, dry tone.

"So what are you gonna do if you're not gonna train like the rest of us?" Sen asked, taking a bit out of his snack.

Kyomu shrugged. "Eh. I'll just think really hard on ways to improve my power and apply it at the Sports Festival." He finished off his own pastry. _"Worked for my brother,"_ he thought, _"and the law can't stop me from training my Quirk if the law can't see me in my own room."_

Sen rolled his eyes. "With no practice at all? I feel like that's doomed to fail, man."

"Hey, I'm a quick learner. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Yeah, whatever." The bald teen gave his friend a playful shove on his shoulder, a small smirk growing on his face. "In all seriousness, though. We're all gonna do our best at that Festival, right? If not for ourselves, at least to one-up all those guys that showed up in front of our class's door. Right?"

"Oh, for sure!" Sato flexed one of his muscles and gave it a hearty slap. "They ain't gonna know what hit 'em!"

Sero let out a chuckle. "Same here, man. Same here."

A solemn nod was the only response Shoji gave.

"I'm gonna kick the shit outta that pretentious purple-haired prick if we end of fighting," Kyomu proclaimed. This earned him no small amount of odd glares, though they were quickly dropped. They'd all heard the things he'd said to Kyomu.

"Eh-heh... alright, cool." Sen, as well as everybody else, turned their heads back to the sunset. "Then let's do our best, guys."

* * *

 **A/N- This is probably one of, if not the, most boring chapters this story will ever have, at least in my opinion. Sorry about that.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 16- Sports Festival**

* * *

It was when Kyomu had seen the full fake cities UA employed for training an/or examination exercises did he stop questioning not only how vast the coffers of the learning institution was, but how willing they were to expunge those coffers. Everything he has seen since then had done nothing but reassure him that he had made the right decision.

The giant stadium UA would be hosting the Sports Festival in was in no way an exception to this. He'd just grown too numb to seeing such costly spectacles such as this. The scary part was this was something that had occurred within his very first semester at this school.

It also happened to be the most liveliest even he'd ever been to in his entire life, too. Thousands of people were outside the giant stadium as the events went underway, most milling about the various concession stalls scattered around the outside of the stadium or finding ways to entertain themselves. Others were slowly funneling into the stadium to try and find their seats. People, entire families, and even some heroes could be seen practically as far as the eye could see. It certainly did have all the makings of a national event.

Unfortunately for Kyomu, he and his entire class were stuck in locker rooms. Due to actually being a participant inn the Festival, he couldn't calmly enjoy any of it.

"Certainly sounds like they're having fun out there," Kyomu grumbled as he slammed his locker door shut. "Sure wish I could be one of those people."

"Aw, come on." A light punch found itself landing on Kyomu's shoulders. He turned his head to see Kirishima sending him a toothy grin. "We get to be the guys showing off out there! We're only gonna have three chances out entire life to do something like that! Get pumped!"

"Kirishima, chances are that at some point during this Festival I'm gonna end up fighting somebody my age, which, of course, will lead me to punching said person in the face," Kyomu deadpanned. "There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I... eh, I'm not gonna lie, I'm just not in the mood. It's one of those days, y'know?"

He tilted his head to the side. "I... don't?" A hand rose up to rub at his red, spiky hair. "Somethin' the matter, dude?"

Kyomu shook his head. "Nah, nothing. I mean, these UA-branded gym clothes are a bit tight, but other than that I'm good."

And how much he wished that he could have just worn his normal clothes for the even. Or his uniform. He would have even taken his costume if it meant he didn't have to wear the gym uniform. Nothing wrong with it, of course- free clothes- but it pinched him in the crotch in all the wrong places and was, quite frankly, a bit too constricting. Plus everybody else was wearing it. Because they had to. Because in an event where everybody would have varying genetic superpowers they had to keep things fair with the clothing. A lack of support items he could get, and he could even understand the need for some image of uniformity while representing UA on live TV.

It didn't change the fact that if UA could afford to build a stadium it could afford better gym uniforms.

Sighing, Kyomu turned around and pressed his back against the lockers. The classes were fortunate enough that each individual class got two locker rooms, one per gender, for preparation of the coming events. Most of the 1-A males had already prepared themselves and left. The only exception, of course, was Kirishima and Kyomu. The former for reasons Kyomu had no clue, the latter because he was dragging his feet.

He was gonna go at his own pace, damn it.

"So are you gonna come out soon?" Kirishima asked. "'Cause, you know, the actual event is gonna start pretty soon."

"Yeah, I'm goin'." Kyomu waved a hand. "Just gimme me a minute to soak it all in."

The red-haired student rolled his red eyes. "You know after we graduate and become heroes we can just come and watch it like the rest of the heroes out there are doing, right? It's just for three years. You didn't even know it existed until Midoriya told you about it!"

"Ah-huh, and now I realize what I've been missing all these years. And it just sucks that my first exposure to it is through competing." He waved his hand once more. "Just go, I'll catch up. And if you see Sen out there fretting tell 'im I'll be there when I get there. No way I'm gonna actually miss the damn thing- Aizawa would chew me out on it until summer break."

"Heh heh, he totally would. Well, see ya in a bit!" With that, Kirishima turned around and made his way out the locker room, leaving the door open behind him. The sounds of the hoard of people in the stadium above filtered in through the opened door, moderately increasing Kyomu's ire.

The two weeks that were supposed to be spent in training and preparation for the Sports Festival had gone by in a flash for Kyomu. For the rest of his classmates, he could say the same. It had seemed like every day in that two weeks they'd come to class almost exhausted with the amount of training they put into their bodies. During their time changing into the gym clothes Kyomu was certain he saw the muscles on Midoriya's small and yet strangely buff body even more defined.

He couldn't say he underwent any similar changes, having not put any physical training in other than the disastrous "day of struts" as he called it. Most of that time had been spent on mental conditioning and application of Quirk improvement theories. Or more simply: he sat in bed while taking short naps from time to time to generate ideas for his Quirk and tried them out in his room. He didn't think he got as much improvement over his Quirk compared to his brother, but what was a couple of weeks to ten years?

Besides. He put enough effort into it that he managed to get a new trick or two up his sleeve.

"Hey, the hell are you still doing here?" Kyomu's head snapped up at the voice calling out to him. "Festival's gonna start any minute, Void."

"Nice to see you too, Bakugo. You just get out of the shower room?" He would have withered under the nickname, but it was Bakugo. For as long as Kyomu knew him he'd come up with a nickname for everyone in their class, usually revolving around their Quirk or features. Or whatever he felt like.

Strangely he just called Kyomu "Void" on the very few occasions they talked. As far as he knew, if he gave someone a nickname based on their Quirk, it was usually a bastardized version of the Quirk name. But he was just Void, the proper name of his Quirk. And as far as he knew the only people he called by legitimate names, for how legitimate someone could be addressed with their Quirk name at least, were some of the teachers and more recognizable heroes. Namely All Might. Aizawa, too, on the rare occasion he mentioned him.

Kyomu didn't know if it was some kind of sign of respect or that Bakugo recognized him as enough competition that he warranted sparing memory space over.

Huffing, Bakugo brushed back some of his glistening, slightly wet hair. "What's it to ya?" He glared at Kyomu. "Answer the damn question already."

"So pushy," Kyomu sighed, leaning his body forwards and away from the lockers. "Just doing some mental prep is all. I've never been on live TV, after all. You any nervous?"

"Tch. Not on your life." Bakugo crossed his arms. "It's just another hurdle to get past, nothing more. And heroes get TV exposure all the time, anyways; consider it training for the future if it bugs you so damn much."

Rolling on the back of his feet with his hands clasped behind him, Kyomu nodded. "I guess. Think you'll do any good out there?"

"Of course I am. I'm gonna win."

"So bold! But-"

"I'm not kidding around." The tone Bakugo had taken, the most serious one Kyomu had ever heard him speak, caused the teen to stop rolling back and forth on his feet. The look he was giving Kyomu was equal parts serious, if still carrying that angry undertone he always wore. "I'm gonna beat everybody at this Festival and prove I'm the best student here." He leaned in closer to Kyomu. "That includes that Half and Half bastard, and that especially includes _you_."

The black-haired teen took a step back. "Did I do something to you, Bakugo?" he asked.

"You didn't do a damn thing," he huffed. "Your existence is what bugs me. That's it."

"Oh, well it that's all," Kyomu sarcastically replied, rolling his eyes. "And what exactly is it about me that's so offensive?"

Part of him feared that it was his brother that bothered Bakugo so much. All the off-putting behavior he'd been giving the teen had only started after UA, and he'd been one of the ones his brother had dispatched so easily. The logical part of his brain told him that it was the most likely reason, and already he could feel himself grow heated over the debate that was soon to happen.

To his surprise, he was completely wrong.

"You're one of the most prospective students in the damn class. You're _competition_ ," the Explosion user practically hissed. "You're strong, your Quirk is decent, and I know your grades are good from how the others talk about you. So far you've been extremely successful and it pisses me off."

Kyomu blinked. "B-b-but- what?" he stammered. "I don't- you- do you just hate everybody that does well in the class?"

"Practically everybody in there does average. They're extras compared to people like us."

He slowly nodded. "What about Midoriya? He's on par with us, right?"

"That nerd bastard is another headache entirely," Bakugo snarled.

Obviously a touchy subject. Kyomu tried shifting it. "What about Yaoyorozu? Or Todoroki?" Kyomu asked.

"That rich bitch and the Half and Half bastard were groomed to get this far," he retorted. "She comes from a wealthy upbringing, his dad is the number two hero. The path they took to get this far was practically paved for them. Lives of high society and private schools and all that shit. I come from an average upbringing and shitty schools, and if I become a better hero even though I had way less opportunity than those two did, it looks better for my hero image. Makes it easier to become number one." His eyes were practically blazing at this point. "But then you came outta nowhere and threw that off entirely."

The pieces slowly started to come together in Kyomu's mind. He didn't want to comprehend the picture, but like it or not, it was there. "You're upset at me over the fact that I'm a successful hero student in the same class as you with an even more unfortunate background than what you have, and because of that people will possibly look at you less favorably when you become a hero because of that fact."

"Didn't I just say that?"

"Bakugo, that's insane."

"It isn't!" The teen crossed his arms in the most aggressive motion Kyomu had ever seen in his life, almost startling him from how abrupt it had been. "I'm gonna beat everybody at this Festival, including you."

Scoffing, Kyomu crossed his own arms. "And how, exactly, are you going to beat me when you couldn't beat my brother?"

There was a certain tenseness that instantly grew between the two of them along with the accompanying silence following this statement. A tenseness that, if it were more than just the two of them in the room, anybody else would have stayed quiet and backed away from both teens. As it was the only effect this tenseness had was to make Bakugo momentarily freeze, and then cause him to glare even more angrily at Kyomu who calmly gazed on.

"What does that have to do anything?" he quietly seethed. "You lost to him, too. Just 'cause you're related doesn't mean-"

"I lost after fighting him for minutes. Alone. You lost in five seconds with three others backing you up."

 _That_ statement had caused Bakugo to grind his teeth together so hard that they were under threat of being broken from the pressure. He didn't say anything more, either, instead choosing to turn his back to Kyomu and stomp towards the door. It was only Kyomu calling out to him that caused him to halt.

"Bakugo."

The door was halfway open and his grip on the side was so strong it began to dent, but at the very least the blonde teen stopped. He didn't turn to look back at Kyomu, but the mere gesture of stopping was enough for the Void user to continue.

"I really don't want something like this to drive a bad wedge between us. In a perfect world I'd like for us to be friends, but if you don't want that, that's fine. I just hope that, regardless of what happens today, there won't be any animosity between us?"

"... Tch. Whatever." He opened the door fully, stopping briefly and looking down at a figure that was standing right in front of him. "Get outta the damn way, useless nerd," he growled, shoving the figure away and stomping out towards the stadium grounds.

Kyomu sighed, falling back against the lockers and rubbing a hand through his face. He started to think that, just maybe, he should have left the matter be. It wasn't like it changed anything other than giving Kyomu more insight into Bakugo he honestly didn't know if he wanted to know or not. And he doubted the jab about his brother would actually unsettle the other teen all that much- he was always angry, yes, but he had enough intelligence on par with that anger to see past that.

At least, Kyomu hoped it wouldn't bother him. Intelligent Bakugo was indeed, but it was a very fierce intelligence.

"Mm, man..." The black-haired teen peeked through the gaps in his fingers at the shorter teen that had walked into the room. He only needed to second to glance at the black-green hair before the fingers went back over his eyes. "Hey, Mido."

"Shinka," the shorter teen greeted. He was rubbing at his arm nervously, and his head kept switching back between the taller teen and the door leading to the stadium. "What was that with Kacchan? He's not mad at you, is he?"

"Mad? Nah, I don't think so. Bakugo is just... he's ambitious. And he's got a really weird way of going about that ambition. I don't think he takes to competition too well." The hand finally slid down Kyomu's face as he fully looked at the student in front of him. "He's always so angry. Especially at you. Why is that?"

The rubbing of Midoriya's arm increased. "It's... it's complicated," he mumbled. "There's just a lot between the two of us, and it's... it's really confusing, Shinka. Between his general attitude and my late Quirk bloom and our goals being the exact same and everything, he's just..." He cut himself off, breathing out an exasperated sigh. "It's a really big mess."

"I can see that." If the stuttering wasn't enough to emphasize it, the nervous looks going across the teen's green eyes was. "Why do you call him by that nickname? Kacchan? I can practically see veins popping out of his neck every time you call him by that name. Why not just use his normal one?"

"Huh? Kacchan?" Midoriya looked up into Kyomu's eyes. "I've always called him that. We were friends."

"He almost killed you on the first day of school in front of the whole class and All Might," Kyomu pointed out. When the smaller teen opened his mouth to argue this, he held up a hand to stop him. "I know, I know. Complicated history and all that, I get it. But you can't tell me you're okay with the relationship you two have right now?"

Midoriya shook his head. "I'm not even sure what I would call our relationship right now," he admitted. "And... it's not something that could be fixed with a single, long conversation going over all our issues. Even if we worked at it for the entire first year here I'm not sure we could ever get back to the friendship we used to have. He's just... Kacchan." He paused. "But if I'm being honest, any situation would be better than this. Even if we were just acquaintances that barely cared about each other, it'd be better. Kacchan's gonna be a great hero some day- I just know it. And the reality of us working together then or even at some point here in UA is extremely likely. I don't want any possible cooperation between us be jeopardized by personal feelings." He swallowed. "I don't... want anybody to be hurt or worse just because we couldn't work well together but there was nobody else to rely on."

Kyomu nodded. It was the kind of forwards thinking he'd come to know Midoriya for, at least when it wasn't said in a string of barely-intelligible mumbles. And he didn't know nearly enough about their past friendship or what had caused that schism to grow between them to make their relationship today into whatever it was now. The incomprehensible and awkward mess it was. Because of that, he had no idea how the two of them could start repairing it into something more... manageable.

It didn't mean he at least didn't want to try.

"Then maybe start by calling him by his real name." The green-eyed teen looked up at the blue-eyed one in surprise. "Bakugo. He's a really prideful guy, beneath everything else. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to assume he takes that name, Kacchan, as an insult, especially since it's from you of all people. Call him by his family name like everyone else. It's as good a start as I can think of."

Midoriys slowly nodded, looking down at the floor. He frowned, and the fists at his side began to clench. "It's not that I don't want to," he began, "but with him it's hard to treat with respect, even if he's more than earned it with his Quirk and intelligence. He just hasn't been the nicest to me over the years." He shook his head. "I'd like to leave it at that, Shinka."

"That's fine." The taller teen pushed off the lockers and walked to Midoriya's side, lightly punching him on the shoulder. "Now come on. You gotta go show off that weirdly cut body of yours to all of Japan's hero society."

A light blush appeared on the smaller teen's face, but he obliged and followed him out the door. "I'm not weirdly buff," he softly argued, the sounds of the crowds above growing louder as they walked down the gray hallway. "I just work out a lot. I have to, for my Quirk."

"You kind of break every time you use it," Kyomu noted. "I don't think it's working."

"No, it is. If I didn't maintain my body like this my limbs would explode from trying to use it."

It was a strange combination, such a morbid sentence being spoken by small and generally soft-spoken and sweet Midoriya. Enough that Kyomu stumbled in his footsteps and looked down at the smaller student in shock. "Your Quirk would kill you if you're not careful!?" he practically shouted.

Midoriya shrunk back. "I mean... I might have survived having my limbs blown off."

Kyomu groaned in response to this, running his hands through his long bangs. "Your Quirk really doesn't suit your personality. It's kinda funny in an almost ironic way," he mumbled. "You shoulda been born with some kind of intelligence Quirk with the way you talk and mumble all the time. Like the one the principal has."

"You think so?" he asked. "I-I guess I could see myself with something like that. Superhuman intelligence certainly has its merits, but there are drawbacks to it as well." His hands slowly found his way to his chin, and Kyomu began to regret ever opening his mouth. "However the reality of being caught in a situation where raw intelligence wouldn't be enough is always plausible, and without any physical ability I'd be at a sever disadvantage. My intelligence as it is already surpasses the average, so that coupled with my strength Quirk-"

"I think I see why Bakugo hates you so much," Kyomu grumbled, interrupting Midoriya. He fortunately stopped mid-mumble, letting out sheepish grin all the while. "But seriously though. You're not gonna use that power, are you?"

"Eh? Maybe? Why do you ask?"

"Because we're gonna be thrown into a bunch of consecutive challenges, and a broken arm or finger or whatever is really gonna mess your day up," Kyomu answered. "Look, Midoriya, I get it. The Sports Festival is a big deal for you and your hero career, so you wanna do your best. Your best, however-" he leaned down and poked the green-eyed teen in the chest, "- causes you to break your bones because you barely have a handle on the damn thing. You just don't have the same control over it like the rest of us do with ours. So why can't you just try your best this year _without_ using your Quirk, and then next year when you have more control and won't blow your hand out throwing a punch you can actually try your fullest?"

Midoriya batted the hand away. "I appreciate the concern, Shinka," he said, "but I can't intentionally cripple myself when everybody else is gonna give it their all. It's because I can't fall behind. You understand?" He looked down at his own hands, slightly trembling. "I have to catch up to the rest of you. If I slow down for my own sake, I'll never catch up."

"A cripple is all you're gonna be if you push it too far," Kyomu grunted. "Look, just... at least promise me, if you do have to use it, you don't use it enough so that it causes permanent damage or something stupid like that?"

"I don't exactly want it to come to that, Shinka, but we'll see."

The conversation was left off at that. Midoriya had faced the light ahead leading into the stadium grounds silently and with complete confidence. Kyomu's expression was extremely lax in comparison, hands clasped behind his head with a bored look in his eyes as he walked calmly next to his shorter classmate.

 _"Midoriya wants to win so hard he's willing to break his body. He's so dedicated. Kinda makes me ashamed that I'm gonna win this just because I can,"_ Kyomu thought. _"Ah, well."_

* * *

The very top of the stadium was nothing more than solid concrete and flat ground. No seats or any spectator boxes, of course; just flat, solid ground. There were no entrances to the top of the stadium, and because of this there was enough reason to assume that nobody would be able to climb up all the way up to the top to try to get a free viewing of the Festival. And should somebody find a way, likely through a flight Quirk or teleportation or some such, they would be easily spotted and guided down by the number of heroes that would instantly see them.

Fortunately for Hikari's case, he had the ability to bend light around him to become invisible.

"Ah... ah, what the... whew..." Panting heavily, the invisible teen pulled himself up to the top of the stadium before rolling onto his back, heaving great amounts of air as he struggled to keep up his invisibility. Below him were the wild sounds of an entire crowd cheering on whatever it was that was happening down there.

He usually wasn't so exhausted pulling something like this. Using Speed of Light to climb up large, vertical surfaces? Fine enough. Maintain an invisibility field? Easy as pie, especially considering it was broad daylight and he had a practically infinite supply of light to work with. Doing all of this together, and adding to the stress of being surrounded by so many people and heroes, did nothing to calm his nerves or make him concentrate hard enough to preserve his strength. But he'd managed to climb to the top- the hard part was over.

He still needed to maintain his invisibility, but that was a cakewalk compared to everything else he'd done so far.

"Making me sneak through practically a kilometer of parked cars, and all those people and heroes, then there's this stupid stadium..." Hikari huffed, trudging towards the edge of the stadium's top. "What kind of budget does a school have to have to build a stadium and host something like this, anyways?"

Letting out a final huff, he planted himself firmly at the edge of the stadium and leaned forwards. Being as high as he was, he could barely see the crowds filling the stadium seats, let alone the actual participants that were in the actual play area. Any volume to be heard was drowned out by the crowd as well.

Well, he could at least fix one of those problems.

Hikari let out an invisible frown. He rose his unseen hand up to his unseen eye, shaping his thumb and index finger into a circle for him to look through. Light swirled around the hollow inside the hole until it stilled. Hikari then looked through the hole, the world being magnified through the opening he'd made. It was a similar experience to looking through a spyglass.

"Can't believe that actually worked," he murmured, moving his hand around at the crowd of students at the very bottom of the stadium. "If I'm not mistaken, it's not just the first-year hero classes competing today, but the entirety of the first-year classes at UA. And they're all wearing a similar gym uniform, too, and they're all grouped together. Gonna be hard to pick out Kyomu's class... I only got a glance at some of their faces at USJ, too, and from Shigaraki's file... hm..."

There were certainly some weird ones down there, too. Most of the student's looked fairly normal. Others had strange features to their body due to their Quirks, such as horns or oddly-colored skin. There was even one whose head was replaced by what looked like a manga's dialogue bubble.

Hikari had lingered on that particular student with a look of complete confusion before moving on.

"Eh, there we are. I recognize the pink girl, the invisible... I think that's a girl, there's those guys I knocked out in USJ..." Familiar faces and colors shifted into view as he focused on the heads of what was most assuredly Kyomu's classmates. They were all looking ahead at something, too, with the addition of every other student. Now that he looked closely, Hikari saw that they were all focused on something. A microphone was set up near the front of the crowd of competitor students, up on the stage where the female hero leading the Festival was.

Hikari physically winced when he saw who it was at the microphone up in front of all those people.

"Ah, boy..."

* * *

"I don't consent, I don't consent!"

"You're a student of UA training to be a hero," Midoriya grunted, pushing at Kyomu's back and forcing him up the small set of stairs. "Public speaking is gonna be a common thing for us, so something like this should be nothing to you!"

"I don't even want to, though!" Kyomu hissed, fighting against Midoriya to no avail as he was pushed onto the podium.

"Then you shouldn't have been the top performer in the entrance exam!" With a huff, Midoriya crossed his arms and jumped off the stage, leaving Kyomu to his fate. All he could do was stand nervously at the microphone and stare out at the crowd of students in front of him that looked up at him expectantly.

Apparently, the beginning of the Sports Festival called for a rousing speech by a student of the hero course. And that specific person just had to be the one that had passed the entrance exam with the highest mark. And, of course, that person had to be Kyomu, because he performed too well at that exam.

And he was in no way comfortable with public speaking on this level. It wasn't even just the entire first year of UA; it was the thousands of people in the stands, cameras, and everybody watching through those cameras watching him. The whole country, in laymen's terms.

The last time he gave any kind of public speech was middle school.

"Uh..." He leaned towards the microphone slowly, sweat dripping down his face he was so nervous. He wished he was told they were doing this sooner- he could have prepared. Or better yet, come up with a way of weaseling out of it.

This was in part because he had no idea what to actually say.

"..."

The stares were beginning to grow worse, along with his nerves.

"..."

His eyes darted to his right. The UA teacher heading off the Sports Festival, Midnight, was gesturing her hands towards Kyomu in an effort to get him to say something. She was smiling awkwardly and nodding, perhaps in an effort to calm him, though it did nothing but make him more nervous.

"... Midnight, take it away." He quickly ducked away from the microphone stand and hopped down to his class. Almost everybody was giving him looks of disbelief or disappointment, and everybody else was giving him sympathetic nods and pitying looks. The only solace was that the loudest teacher in all of UA, up in the announcer booth along with Aizawa, was happily and loudly taking it away from that point, as well as Midnight who gave him an understanding nod.

Small miracles did exist, if only briefly.

* * *

"Yeah, he never was good at public speaking. Sheesh." Shaking his head, Hikari lowered his fingers and let out a deep sigh. His brother had so few weaknesses, but speaking or doing anything in front of a crowd of people was one of his weaker points. For a moment, if even made him wonder why his brother wanted to be a hero in the first place.

Then he remembered.

 _"If I become a hero it'll be easier to kill villains."_

It wasn't an idea he approved of at all. He didn't want his brother to become a killer. He took the hit and went to prison for the express purpose of making sure his brother wasn't a killer, or at the very least was seen as one. But with what Kyomu was planning, he didn't intend on being a known killer. One that killed from the shadows- a killer hero.

He didn't know what was worse. Being labeled a killer or being an actual killer.

 _"He seemed so calm with the idea, too. So casual talking about people he'd already murdered."_ The normal, almost carefree tone Kyomu had taken on when talking about the people he'd killed was still fresh in Hikari's mind. _"It's something he's completely and wholeheartedly accepted, being a killer. That's a line he can never uncross, but he could still stop before anybody but me figures it out. But he doesn't want to. He hates villains that much, and he thinks he'll never get caught. And who knows, maybe he won't._

 _"But... it's still not right,"_ Hikari silently lamented. _"I wanted him to move on from it all. Then again, he... he's kinda happy right now. Well, not_ right now _right now, but the way his face lit up when he talked about his classmates was... he looked kinda happy."_

The students were all lining up now. It looked like the first event would be a race of all things if the extremely large track they set up said anything. They even put obstacles in the way from what Hikari could see: a large cavern with flat-topped pillars of stone connected by tightropes and something that suspiciously looked like a minefield near the end.

He hoped UA didn't actually put a minefield there.

 _"Well, bro, I guess it's too early to call anything right now,"_ Hikari concluded, raising his fingers back up to his eye. _"So I'll keep watching you to make sure you and see where you take us."_

* * *

The first event in the Sports Festival entailed a footrace. Straightforward enough- the first forty-two people to get from point A to point B progressed to the next event.

He wasn't so surprised when people started messing up right out the gate, which in itself was a metaphorical expression. Because they messed up _in_ the gate.

They'd all been given small, narrow lanes to start in before they all got to the actual racetrack to make their attempt at the finish goal. Problem was, there were so many students attempting to push their way through the narrow lanes that they unintentionally caused a blockage. The lucky ones had managed to make their way out before the blockage became too severe, while others had to make due with squeezing past the mass of students blocking the way. A few of the more intuitive ones managed to use their Quirks in some way to bypass that.

Kyomu chose the simply method of opening a portal and walking through a second one located on the other side of the blockage.

"Single-file mean anything to those guys?" he grumbled under his breath, dispelling the portal behind him and going into a sprint alongside the other students who had already made it out, most of which were 1-A and 1-B students.

"Yo, dude! Wait up!"

Kyomu turned around, maintaining his speed by kicking at the ground while at the same time addressing the person who had called out to him. It was Sen, who slowly caught up to Kyomu as he sprinted towards him.

"Ah, ah... the hell- are you skipping?" his bald friend incredulously asked, finally closing the distance between the two of them while looking down at Kyomu's feet. The black-haired teen shrugged in response.

"I can't exactly _run_ backwards, now, can I?" he reasoned. "Skipping, though, that's doable."

Sen shook his head. "I'm just gonna pretend that makes sense. Why are you even running, anyways? Can't you just make a bunch of portals to walk through until you make it to the end?"

"Eh... I could," Kyomu agreed, turning back forwards and breaking out into a sprint. "Seems like it's a bit overkill, though, you know? Especially with- whoa!"

The large, robot leg crashing down right in front of him cut off any words Kyomu wanted to finish with.

He slid to a halt, Sen and all the others at the front of the race doing the same. A familiar, metallic giant loomed over them, with close to a dozen more standing right behind it. Menacing, red optics focused down on them, with large, metal pincers slowly closing and opening as the giant machines loomed over the students.

The zero-pointers back from the entrance exams. A lot of zero-pointers.

"Alright, UA, I get it!" Kyomu jumped backwards as a giant, metal appendage slammed down on where he had been standing previously, his blue eyes scowling upwards at the giant robot's head. "You love setting ridiculously high standards for us, but now of all times!?"

A dark form slid backwards and to Kyomu's side. A bird-shaped head looked up at the group of robots in front of them, with what passed for a frown on their own face. "UA wouldn't have its reputation if it didn't challenge its students at every corner," Tokoyami said. "Something like this should be par for the course at this point."

"Yeah, I know, but there's a time and a place for this nonsense. At least when they make us suffer it's in the privacy of UA facilities." Other students were beginning so slow down in the wake of the giant robots blocking the path.

"The zero-pointers!?" Kaminari screamed, yellow sparks of electricity defensively flying around him.

Yaoyorozu gulped. "I wonder where they got the money from?"

"I've been asking myself that question ever since the entrance exam." Face twisted in annoyance, Kyomu lifted up a single hand, fingers primed to be snapped. "Screw it, I'm not dealing with this."

The fingers were snapped, simultaneously causing black, disc-like portals to appear through random parts of the front-most robot's body. They disappeared after a second of appearing, leaving giant gaps and tears along the machines body. Movement slowed to a halt and the red optics on its face slowly winked off as sparks fired wildly from the gaps made in its now-segmented body.

Afterwards, the pieces began to fall down.

"Gah! The hell, Kyomu!?" Sen screamed, diving out of the way of a falling part. "This stuff is falling down on us!"

"That's your problem!" Kyomu yelled back, a black portal opening in front of him. "It's a race!"

Sen's face straightened into a blank stare, even after his friend stepped through the portal which soon closed upon him entering. While his head remained pointed forwards, his left arm rose up just in time for a large piece of robot to fall on it. Orange electricity immediately traveled from the left arm to the right, which shot upwards and punched the metal rubble away from him.

"You guys feel like Kyomu's being oddly competitive here?" he asked to his classmates behind him, all of which were doing their best to dodge and avoid the falling rubble. "I just- he's always got that bored expression on his face, so I can't tell how seriously he's trying to win this."

"I'd say he's taking it pretty seriously," Tokoyami grunted, Dark Shadow flying out from him and pushing away a piece of machinery that was about to fall on him. "I didn't know he could do that with his Quirk."

"Oh, he can do all sorts of wild things with that power of his." The bald teen sidestepped a piece of debris. "He's just super lazy."

"Sure would like to see that right now." Dark Shadow lunged upwards above the two students to punch away another piece of debris. "Looks like he's feeling a bit motivated today."

* * *

Giant robots placed firmly behind him, Kyomu had leapt out from his black portal and continued his dead sprint down the racetrack. He heard the sounds of fighting and the giant robots flailing wildly behind him, which gave him all the more reason to keep running. He didn't know how long large, clunky machines could stall the students, but for his class at the very least, it couldn't be that long.

Case in point, the sound of rushing ice coming up right behind him.

Kyomu spun around, a portal opening right behind him to swallow the wall of ice that had been approaching him. He saw the white and red-haired perpetrator not far behind, looking ahead at Kyomu with a perpetual frown plastered to his face. Behind him was a giant, frozen robot.

He was only given a second to marvel at this sight before a tall, speeding form rushed past him.

"What the- Iida?" Kyomu turned forwards once more to continue running. "Oh, yeah, his power is all about running. I guess a footrace would be pretty skewed in his favor- whoa."

Kyomu had to grind his feet to a halt to avoid falling over a cliff that had rapidly approached him. Looking forwards, he saw why; a large section of the racetrack was completely gone, with nothing put platforms dotting the top of the abyss with lines connected to them.

Iida, who had run on ahead of Kyomu, was currently using the engines in his calves to surf along the wires to traverse the pit.

"Oh, man, that's kinda cool," the Void user muttered, looking back down into the pit. "Geez, I hope they put a net down there or something in case somebody falls in. I can't even see the bottom on this thing."

Kyomu knew enough about UA to know that there had to be _some_ amount of safety measure. They loved challenging students, not killing them. And while he was sure a pit of all things wouldn't stop one of his classmates, or even some of the 1-B students surely, he wasn't so confident about the rest of the students. The normal ones who didn't treat something like this as something common.

For him it was no trouble considering he'd gone through Void portals to get to the other side, but the principle still stood.

* * *

"Wow, this school just throws giant robots at the students. That's... wow." Hikari shook his head. "No wonder those 1-A guys are so tough when the school does this kind of stuff to them."

It was here that the white-haired teen had begun to regret no stealing handful of snacks to bring up here with him to enjoy the show with. Not that he would have know how he would have actually carried all those items up here, of course, but it would have been nice all the same.

But then he was reminded that he had promised to bring snacks back to the bar as payment for letting him come all the way out there, and his shoulders slumped slightly.

At this point, he saw that his brother had reached the part of the race that looked like a minefield. And it was, in fact, a minefield according to the Festival's announcer. It gave Hikari mixed feelings.

"Geez, giant robots, mines... this school doesn't hold back," he muttered. "So, bro, what are you gonna do?"

UA was at least nice enough to make it obvious where the mines were buried. There were still more mines than actual clearance space to get to the finish line, but at least they were visible. Kyomu, the first one to get to the mines, had stopped and put a hand to his chin in thought, surveying the field while tapping a foot.

"If it were me, I would have just fired a laser in a straight line to trigger all the mines in my way," Hikari spoke to himself. "It would have cleared a way to the finish line for everybody else, sure, but with my Speed of Light that wouldn't have been an issue. Maybe he'll use his Void to make a trench through the mines. Or maybe he'll just make another portal and walk his way to the end."

As it stood, his brother had chosen to go for the former solution just as others from his class began to catch up to him. A large, black line of Void appeared from Kyomu's position all the way to the finish line, banishing any soil and mines to Void. The line quickly disappeared, leaving a small, clear trench for Kyomu to run through.

From what Hikari saw, his brother was alone. Two other students, ones he in fact recognized as some he'd knocked unconscious, had caught up to him. The one with the ice was freezing a path over the mines and to the finish line whereas the angry-looking one was using his explosive power to propel himself towards the end goal. Other students were there was well, though they were taking a more liberal route and trying to tiptoe past the mines.

"Oh, it's looking pretty close," the teen noted. "Kyomu's got a straight shot there, but that guy with the ice is breezing through it, too. Explosion boy isn't having any trouble, either, so it looks like it's down to those three. Then there's that guy over in the back..."

"That guy" was the dark green-haired student, the one that could punch really hard that Shigaraki had a certain distaste for. He was using a piece of one of the robots at the beginning as a shovel and was, for whatever reason, digging up the mines and piling them up.

"What does he plan on doing? He can't seriously mean to dig his way to the finish line." Hikari let out an incredulous sigh as he shook his head, though he froze when the student threw his makeshift shovel on the pile and hopped on top of it. "Waaaait a minute, he can't be- oh, no way!"

The mines under the boy exploded, the piece of metal shielding him and simultaneously carrying him as the explosive force threw him forwards, high above the rest of the mines and straight towards the finish line. Hikari was laughing at the sight, thoroughly exhilarated from watching as the body rapidly approached the finish line.

His laughter became hysterical when he managed to cross the line a single second before Kyomu managed to run across it.

"Ahahahah! Oh, man, that was... ah, that was great." A few more mirthful chuckles escaping him, Hikari leaned forwards with newfound focus. Any thoughts or regrets about snacks instantly vanished. "Oh, now I'm jealous of Kyomu. He gets to go to school with people that think up that kind of crazy stuff on the fly? So cool."

He could only hope his brother was having a great a time as he was. If he felt elated just watching it, he couldn't imagine how his brother was feeling actually being in the event.

* * *

"That was a cheap shot and he knows it."

"I don't see why you're so upset, Kyomu," Sen demurred, hands clasped behind his head and eyes closed. "Second place ain't too bad. And it's only the first event- not like you're severely crippled here or anything. I mean, geez, I got eighth place and you don't see me complaining."

"There should be a rule against that kinda stunt." He didn't even know where Midoriya had gotten that piece of a robot's armor- probably from the one he or one of the other student's destroyed. He knew even less how he managed to carry said piece of metal all the way to the minefield, let alone across the man-made chasm and across the tightropes.

He hadn't even used that strength-enhancing Quirk of his.

On one hand, Kyomu had thought the move, although incredibly risky and not exactly practical, was a neat one that had netted him the win. And under any other circumstance he would have been patting the student on the back and congratulating him for a job well done. On the other, that first place slot should have been his and he was literally a second away from claiming it until Midoriya had flown in and stolen it out from right in front of him.

"You're just mad because he did something cool and you just used your Quirk to breeze through the whole race. And that he stole first place from you." Sen vocalized Kyomu's thoughts while opening a single eye and looking towards a disgruntled Kyomu. "And come on. You have to admit it was a cool strategy."

"... Eh." Kyomu turned his back and looked ahead. Midoriya was ahead of the crowd of forty-two students that had passed the race, a mix of 1-A, 1-B, and a few other general ed. students. "It was okay, I guess. Glad he didn't break anything doing it."

"You're hating on the guy really hard right now, but half the time you mention him you always fret about his bones," the bald teen noted. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were worried about him."

"He's our classmate, isn't he?" the black-haired teen asked. "And it's Midoriya. He's one of the nicer ones. I like him."

"Then stop drilling a hole into the back of his head with your eyes and go congratulate him."

Kyomu huffed and grumbled something intelligible to his friend, who smirked and response as watched as he skulked towards Midoriya.

Most of the students he walked past ignored him in favor of the teacher on the stage ahead of them. Midnight, and the large, slot-like device at her side she was using to show off the events. There were two exceptions to nobody looking at him, and that was Todoroki and Bakugo.

Todoroki had glanced over at Kyomu, if briefly. His face was impassive and he looked back up to Midnight as quickly as he looked at Kyomu. Bakugo, by contrast, looked even more angry than usual and practically snarled at Kyomu when he walked by. He'd been the one to get fourth place, with Todoroki nabbing third. He imagined that they were both quite upset at him for getting second, and Midoriya more for first.

Midoriya had his back to all of them, though he seemed to almost be shaking. Whether it was through the high of making first place in the first event or due to the fact he could feel the sheer displeasure from others radiating towards his back was a mystery. Kyomu almost laughed out loud when he tapped on the smaller teen's shoulder and he jumped up.

"Ah! O-oh, Shinka. Hey." He gave a small, forced smile as he nervously looked up. "Congratulations on making second place! That's really good."

"If anybody deserves any congratulations, it's you," Kyomu said. "That trick you pulled with the mines was pretty good. You even managed not to break any bones."

"Eh-heh, yeah. Thanks." He turned his head back to Midnight, Kyomu doing the same. "I wonder why they chose her for this position to the Sports Festival."

Kyomu frowned. He could see a few reasons just by looking at her, though a large part of him though that was being a bit presumptuous. She was one of the more experienced teachers at the school, and that experience was in large part mirrored very well by how... womanly her body looked. The only solace Kyomu could find was that her off-white hero suit covered almost her whole body with the exception of her head.

He didn't think it made up for the face she was swinging around a riding crop and had handcuffs hanging off from her wrists.

"This is a national event. Children are watching this," Kyomu muttered. "Isn't her costume a bit inappropriate for this kinda thing?"

"You wouldn't be the first person to complain about her outfit," Midoriya said. "She's one of the first R-rated heroes, you know."

"... The hell's an R-rated hero?"

"You know how most heroes have kind of a theme that goes around them? All Might has his American-looking outfit and named all his moves after US states, Present Mic looks like a DJ, you know, things like that?" Kyomu nodded and prompted the smaller teen to continue. "Well, some heroes like Midnight chose their themes to be a bit more... adult. You know what I mean? Because she looks... well, you know..."

"Like a bondage fetishist?" Kyomu bluntly stated, causing Midoriya to immediately go red. "A masochist? A dominatrix? A-"

"Y-yeah," Midoriya interrupted, rapidly nodding. "It's because her Quirk involves exuding a sleeping pheromone from her body that near-instantly knocks anybody out. What she's wearing right now is actually tame compared to the one she wore in her hero debut; it showed so much skin it caused an outrage."

R-rated heroes. Kyomu didn't know what to think about that. Sure, there were many heroes that kids all over looked up to- All Might-, and there wasn't exactly a shortage of those. Heroes specifically for adults though was a... strange concept for him to grasp. Heroes were supposed to be something anybody could look up to, and he wasn't so sure his mother would ever approve of looking up to somebody like that. If she were still alive, that is.

Then again, he knew Midnight from one of his classes she taught and she seemed like a straight-forwards and likable enough person. The R-rated thing was just a mask put on for the hero persona. And if it wasn't and she secretly did hold a nightlife, it wasn't his business. And honestly, he didn't want to know.

"Man, heroes can be weird," he concluded. He looked up to the device next to her, eyes widening when he saw it was displaying the next event. He'd thought so hard he missed the entire explanation on what it was. "So what's the next event?" he quickly asked.

"It says it right there." Midoriya pointed towards the device displaying a picture of All Might sitting on top of a couple of the UA teachers. "A cavalry battle."

"Cavalry battle?" Kyomu echoed. "We're gonna be... sitting on each other?"

"Mm-hm. Teams of two to four are made, with the leader being carried by everybody else. It sounds like we're going to be given headbands with points that directly reflect what place we got in the race." The smaller student shifted his pointing finger to a monitor, see look."

Kyomu followed the finger to the monitor. There was a scoreboard with his and forty-one other names- the students that had won the race, with last place being at the bottom and first place, Midoriya, at the top. There were also numbers next to those names, as well. Numbers that increased the higher one went.

"The last-place winner of the footrace will be given a headband with five points, the forty-first winner one with ten points, and so on and so forth," Midnight announcer, pointing towards the scoreboard.

Following along, Kyomu did some quick math in his head. _"The lowest one is worth five with each place forwards increasing in five. I got second place, which leaves me with two-hundred and five points. It seems like we're all gonna be fighting with each other for the headbands, with the bigger numbers being more enticing targets. Mine alone would be enough to get to the next round..."_ Besides him, Midoriya's body stiffened and his breath hitched in his throat. _"Looks like he just figured that out. And he got first place, too. They're gonna be gunning for him especially."_

"Don't worry, Mido." Kyomu patted the student on the back. "If you want, you can team up with Sen and I."

"Really!?" The speed at which Midoriya turned to Kyomu, a hopeful look in his eyes, was vaguely concerning. "You'll team up with me!?"

"Of course." Kyomu smiled down at him. "We're friends. Right?"

A sadistic smile began to spread through Midnight's face as she pointed to the top of the scoreboard. "But of course, we here at UA just _love_ surprises. That means that the first-place winner gets a special headband!" The numbers next to Midoriya's name were revealed. He flinched like somebody had just punched him in the gut. "First place will be awarded a headband worth ten million points!"

They weren't even directed at him, and yet Kyomu could practically _feel_ the malicious intent every student was sending Midoriya.

"Eek..." Sweat was beading down Midoriya's face and his body was shaking. Slowly, he turned back to Kyomu. "Shinka, you'll still- Shinka!?"

The black-haired student had already turned around and was walking back towards Sen. "You're on your own, buddy," he called back, waving a hand over his shoulder.

Midoriya burst into tears on the spot.

* * *

"What happened to you?" As far as Sen could remember, his friend had been dry when he had left for Midoriya. When he had come back after the cavalry battle was announced, he was wet. Wet and incredibly grumpy-looking. "You look like you just walked through a car wash."

"I'm convinced Midoriya has a secondary Quirk that allows him to cry an inhuman amount of tears," Kyomu explained. "I can picture it right now. Midoriya Izuku. Quirk: Cry Me a River."

Quirking a brow in confusion, Sen looked up to where Midoriya was. He almost cringed back when he saw that a stream of liquid was firing from his eyeballs, with Uraraka standing right in front of him looking at him in an uncomfortable and awkward way.

"He's not gonna, like, dehydrate or something, is he?" Sen asked in a worried tone. "I'm pretty sure he's leaking more fluids than the human body should hold."

"He'll be fine," Kyomu assured. "Probably. Maybe. They have medics on standby for this sort of thing anyways."

Sen rolled his eyes. "Right." Smirking, he nudged his friend in the ribs. "So, we gotta make teams, huh? Geez oh geez, wonder who I can find that will team up with me. Maybe, I don't know, somebody I'm really good friends with that has a lotta points from the race..."

"May I mount you, Sen?"

"Okay you made it weird." The bald teen backed away from Kyomu, who was smirking in his direction. "Goddammit, you- you did that on purpose."

A dry chuckle left Kyomu's mouth. "I just wanted to see how you'd react," he said, making Sen groan in response. "But yeah, I wanna team up with you."

Of course he would. Kyomu, the person who was perpetually bored and, for the most part, a completely straightforwards person. Sen was positive Kyomu knew that's the impression he gave off, and used it so that on the rare occasion he did make a joke it was completely unexpected. He'd even feign ignorance sometimes to make it look like an innocent accident. But that smirk, that small smirk he let out, was always telling.

"Great!" Sen clapped his hands together loudly. "Who else should we get? Maybe Iida? His speed could probably really help with-"

"Nah, we just need the two of us."

Stopping himself, Sen slowly turned his head towards Kyomu. He looked serious enough, in that completely straight and bored expression he wore most of the time. And he wasn't looking around at the other students, either, who were already forming their own teams.

He was actually serious.

"You wanna go into this cavalry battle with just the two of us?" Sen asked, cocking his head to the side.

"My points alone are enough to get us to the next round," he reasoned. "Yours are just icing on the cake. We don't even have to go after anybody- all we gotta do is keep our headbands."

"You want to run defense the whole time?"

"Oh, we don't even have to do that," Kyomu said with a shake of his head. "I got a killer strategy. All we have to do is stand still and wait out the clock."

"Stand sti- oh, wait a minute." A hand found its way to Sen's face. "You're pulling this strategy again?"

Kyomu tilted his head. "It worked last time, didn't it?"

That it had. But, if he remembered correctly, he and Kaminari hadn't done anything in the duration of the "sit around and do nothing" strategy Kyomu had created using his Quirk. That had been during the training session day one. And Sen was grateful towards Kyomu for having given them that win, truly, he was.

On the other hand, this was the Sports Event. An event where people, especially heroes, were going to be looking at _his_ accomplishments. Not Kyomu's or his power. And so far all Sen had managed to do was punch some debris away, wreck a robot, and run a far distance.

Kyomu seemed to sense Sen's hesitation from the look on his face, causing him to take a step forwards. "Sen, come on. I need at least one other person. If you're worried about me doing all the work you can just show off during the third round. I'm just offering you a free ride through the second one."

He had a good point there. A very, very tempting one, too.

"You're sure this plan of yours will work?" Sen asked. "I don't doubt you in the slightest, your plans usually come through, it's just... I mean, how is this even gonna work? We're gonna stand still and do nothing?"

"Trust me." Kyomu smiled at Sen, black wisps flowing around his forearms. "The round's only gonna last five minutes. That kinda time? Perfect for what I have in mind."

"If you say so, man." Shaking his head, Sen patted Kyomu on the shoulder. "I'm gonna be super mad if this doesn't work."

The other teen's smile widened. "Oh, it'll work. There's no way it can fail in the first place."

* * *

Hearing the explanation for how a cavalry battle was played was one thing to Kyomu. It was another thing entirely when he saw all the students around him gather into groups if mostly three and four and have one person climb up on top of the rest. In fact, he was fairly certain that he and Sen were the only pair by the looks of it, with him riding on Sen's shoulders.

They were all spread throughout a large area while they waited for the round to begin. He could see some people looking over at him, and even more looking over at Midoriya who looked incredibly nervous with that ten million point headband on his head. Kyomu didn't envy him that, though at the very least it put less attention on him.

Not that it mattered much with his plan.

"So how's this plan of yours gonna work?" Sen asked from underneath Kyomu. "Don't mean to rush you or anything, dude, but the round's about to start."

"Don't worry about it. It'll be pretty obvious once it starts," he assured. "I just need a name for it."

That gave Sen pause. "... A name? What?"

"For this move I'm about to do," Kyomu explained. "Heroes give their special moves all kinds of weird names, right? Figured I should name what I'm about to do, but I'm kinda struggling here." Groaning, Kyomu rubbed a hand against his face. The clock above the entire cavalry area ticked down to six seconds. "I need something catchy. Somethin' like... voidout. No, that's dumb. Hotel black... black hotel... the inky inn. Agh, that sounded better in my head."

Sen began to grow nervous when the clock went down to three seconds. "You can't do this later?" he asked.

"This is important, okay? Now... endless dark. No. Wait, that sounds kinda cool, though. File it away for later."

The clock had hit zero. The cavalry students rushed forth, with a noticeable number heading directly towards them.

"Kyomu, hurry up!"

"Oh, yeah, that's it. Perfect." Kyomu's fingers shifted to a snapping position just as the cavalry-mounted students approached them. "Darkroom."

 _Snap!_

It was following this sentence that both Kyomu and Sen were encapsulated in complete darkness. Kyomu crossed his arms with a smirk, a feeling of victory and accomplishment washing over him. Sen was stirring beneath him, letting out sounds of distress.

"Ah! The hell happened!?" he yelled. "I'm blind! One of 'em's got a blinding Quirk or something, Kyomu!"

"You're not blind, idiot." The Void user kicked down at his mount, causing him to still. "Stop bumbling around. If you hit the walls you'll probably die. You know how Void works."

"Void?" Sen repeated. "We're... what did you do?"

"I made a portal to Void and wrapped it around us in a dome. Kind of... like a bubble," Kyomu explained. "A bubble of darkness. Man, am I glad I didn't name it that."

It was a simple enough concept to follow. The kind of portal he'd used was an unstable one, the kind that disintegrated. And as it stood, he was the only one that could touch it without getting severely hurt. So the idea of "why not just wrap it around me" had come to him while thinking about ways to improve his Quirk.

There was no way into past the bubble. None, unless one of them decided to dig through the floor to get to them, which he was almost positive nobody competing could do. Anything that did touch the surface of the dome surrounding them, be it matter or energy, would be scattered to Void. Nothing could get in or out, not even light, without Kyomu's consent.

It was a useful ability for trapping anybody that had a Quirk fueled by light.

"All we gotta do is chill out here for five minutes," Kyomu said, crossing his arms behind his head. He'd have to keep count of the time in his head, as no soundwaves from outside the dome would reach them in here, but that was fine enough given he just had to count five minutes. "Easy."

"Yeah. Chill. Heh." He felt the teen under him began to shiver. "Hey, Kyomu, why's it growing cold in here?"

"Eh? Hm..." Kyomu paused to think. "Well, no sunlight or any other heat source can reach us while we're in here. In fact the only thing that is warming us is our body heat and any heat in the floor we're standing on radiating back to us. Why?"

The noticeable sound of teeth chattering were growing louder. "B-because it's really c-c-cold in here, man."

"... Oh."

* * *

There were many in the stands and those watching the Sports Festival on TV that were very confused when a pure black dome surrounded the only pair in the cavalry battle. Even the students outside of class 1-A were confused as to what to do with the dome, some eyeing it nervously while others abandoned it immediately in search of other targets. 1-A students, naturally, steered clear of the dome.

To Present Mic, one of the announcers of the Festival, it was a perfect time to spectate.

"Yeow!" he screamed into his microphone, leaning forwards in his seat with a wide smile on his face. His bandaged partner sitting next to him slumped down from the volume. "Looks like class 1-A's own Shinka Kyomu just trapped himself in a dome of darkness! Better not touch it, or you'll be leaving the Festival with less appendages than you had coming in!"

It was one part explanation to what was occurring, one part good announcing on his part, and, to his partner's thankfulness, one part warning for anybody unfamiliar with the power to not touch the dome. The teachers knew exactly what would happen if somebody unfamiliar with the teen's power went and touched that dome, or worse, dived right in.

"Shinka's Quirk involves the ability to create a variety entrances to a separate, empty dimension. Hence the name he gave it: Void," Aizawa announced from besides Present Mic with notably less energy. "He's the only one able to cross through the portals unharmed while anybody else will either flash freeze or disintegrate, depending on which portal he used. It looks like he's surrounded him and his partner in a complete barrier, effectively sealing themselves off from the rest of the competition."

"Heh heh! Bunkerin' down during the middle of full-on battle's kinda a cowardly move for a hero, ain't it, partner?" Present Mic asked.

The quieter of the two shook his bandaged head. "Not at all," he argued. "What's he's employing is actually a valid strategy. He knows for a fact the points his team started with by default are sufficient in passing this round and progressing to the next, meaning there's no need for them to acquire more headbands. He's blocked off his own team's movement with this barrier of his, of course, but he's also prevented any possible means for anybody to steal his team's points."

"I get ya! So all Shinka has to do for his team to win is maintain that barrier!" the blonde enthusiastically concluded.

"There's no telling what kind of situation a hero will get into when out in the field," Aizawa stated. "Sometimes the best move is to sit still and do absolutely nothing. It doesn't sound heroic, but being completely passive can be your greatest move in an unconventional situation. It's actually a strategy Shinka has employed in the past, though I'm unsure if that means he's extremely clever or lazy."

"Amazing how those two things go hand in hand, huh, Aizawa?"

A long sigh escaped him.

* * *

"Damn it! The hell!?" Explosion after explosion boomed out from Bakugo's hands and at the black dome surrounding Shinka. Each and every single one was swallowed up by the black walls, having no effect. "He's just gonna hole up in there for the entire damn match!?"

It was frustrating on multiple levels. It meant that him and his partner winning was a guarantee, as there was no way for him or anybody else to force him to drop that dome. It also went to show how powerless his own Explosion Quirk was against this. Any Quirk, really. The Half and Half bastard had tried throwing ice at the barrier to no effect.

Shinka. Bakugo hadn't paid much mind to the student. Quiet most of the time, but friendly if approached from what he had seen. Deceptively clever considering he got top marks and came up with strategies like this. Bakugo hadn't even paid attention to the student until the incident at USJ with his brother. The white haired one that had utterly decimated him.

It infuriated him so much knowing there was somebody out there his age who had taken him out so easily, and a known villain at that. The fact that the brother of that person sat in the same class as him gave him complicated feelings, mostly angry ones. It was the fact that Shinka had fallen to his brother as well that prevented Bakugo from practically exploding at him. That and his sordid history with the lighter-haired brother.

He was going to beat him. Him and his brother- that was a fact. All in the name of becoming the number one hero. He'd surpass his classmate and take down an extremely powerful villain that had taken down UA's best and brightest first year class. And that conquest would start the third round, because there was no way he was getting through that barrier.

"Hey, Bakugo, can we go already!?" the red-haired student under him asked in a panicked voice. "We ain't getting through that barrier and time's goin' down!"

"Tch. Yeah, let's go."

* * *

"Shinka Kyomu..." A frown found its way to Todoroki's mouth.

Todoroki could tell a lot about Shinka from the time he'd known him as a classmate. He could tell that he should have been one of the students that got in on a recommendation; his Quirk was extremely powerful and his academic grades said more than enough on that front. He knew he was a passive person based on his strategies and the way he acted so calm and friendly around others.

If the pieces of robot at the racetrack said anything, he could also be very dangerous if he wanted to.

He never had shown any kind of ferocity, though, at least in front of them. It begged the question of what he'd done on the roof of USJ when he fought his brother, and how he'd lasted so long against him compared to the rest of the students. The strongest ones in the whole class.

They'd lasted seconds together while he, alone, lasted minutes.

It didn't matter. He was an obstacle, nothing more. Another wall in the way for him to surpass. He'd show them all that, his old man especially, if and when he fought Shinka in the third round.

"Alright." He looked down at Iida and the others supporting him. "Let's go."

* * *

Five minutes had passed, and with the final second going down a loud buzzer signaled the end of the cavalry battle. A few seconds later the black dome surrounding Kyomu and Sen dropped, revealing the two inside.

The sight of them gave the students and everybody watching pause.

Kyomu had hopped down off of Sen, looking completely fine despite the fact frost was hanging off his clothes and skin, with the tips of his hair being frosted over. He shook the ice off of him despite this, stretching his arms and legs and shaking the leftover frost off his head.

Sen had a similar amount of ice on him, though he had yet to move. His body and face were completely frozen in a single position, and the only indicator that he was still alive were his orange eyes moving about.

"Told ya we'd win," Kyomu gloated, spinning the two headbands around his index finger. "Okay, I'll admit, I forgot to account for the cold. I'm not really affected by it. But hey, we still won, right?"

"Mph uh." That was the only noise Sen could make in response. His lips were frozen shut.

"Uh... yeah, you're gonna be fine. You just need to thaw out a bit." He tried patting his friend on the shoulder to reassure him. All this had caused was for Sen's body to tilt forwards and fall to the ground, though his body was frozen so stiff that he maintained his position.

Everybody watching winced, with Kyomu shaking his head and rubbing a hand across his face.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N- In which Kyomu curb-stomps a teen's hopes and dreams.**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 17- Semi-finals**

* * *

"I said I was sorry, man."

A gesture was made out towards Kyomu in response to his apology. It was unclear what that gesture was, as Sen was currently wrapped in three layers of thermal blankets in order to thaw him out faster, but Kyomu could guess as to what the gesture was thanks to the upset look on Sen's face.

The two were currently in the locker rooms under the stadium, with Sen thawing himself off in preparation for the next event while Kyomu kept him company. The last event would indeed be a fight between the winners who had made it this far, and the brackets had already been drawn up. Only thing left to do was to observe the other contenders and wait.

"You couldn't have warned me your stupid move woulda froze me?" Sen asked. "Yeah, we won, great, but damn."

"It's not even that bad. You would have had a worse time if Todoroki froze you with his ice," Kyomu said.

Sen shuddered. "Don't remind me, dude. I gotta fight that guy in the finals." He let out an anxiety-filled breath. "I know it was decided by random and everything, but geez... I'm toast."

"No, you'd be toast if you were fighting Bakugo."

"He can use fire, too. On his left side," the bald teen lamented. "He just never does for some reason."

The black-haired teen gave a sympathetic nod. "Well, look at it like this. You probably aren't gonna make it far enough to fight me, so... yay?"

A pair of orange eyes rolled. "You're just happy you get to fight that Shinso guy, aren't ya?"

"Well... maybe a little."

There were forty-two winners allowed in the first round. The second only allowed for sixteen who would be fighting in pairs, hence the brackets. So eight pairs for eight fights for the first round of fights in the last even: Aaoyama and Ashido, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, one of the students from class 1-B, Bakugo and Uraraka, Sen and Todoroki, Midoriya and Kaminari, Iida and some girl from the support department, and Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami.

The very first match, though? It was Kyomu and that purple-haired and eyed student. Shinso.

It was bound to be a great fight. For him, at least. Not so much for Shinso after everything he'd said.

"Alright, well, I'm gonna go to the food court before my big fight," Kyomu said, turning towards the locker room door. "You, uh, chill out and do whatever, I guess."

"Har, har."

A small smirk found its way to the teen's face as he walked out of the room. He then turned towards to the right side of the hallway and started walking.

 _"Can't believe thirteen out of sixteen competitors in the finals are from my class,"_ Kyomu thought as he walked. _"Woulda thought more than just one person from class B would have gotten in since they're technically in the hero course, too. So they should be on our class's level, but... I don't know, I didn't see many of them out there. There was that one girl with the weird vine hair, the guy with the weird jaw, a few others, but I didn't get to see their Quirks. Maybe 1-A just lucked out with the naturally stronger ones? I mean, we got people like Bakugo and Todoroki in our class._

 _"Then there's Shinso, the odd one out. The only guy not in a hero class who made it to the finals. Well, him and that girl from the support class. Hatsume, I think? Something like that."_ The teen felt himself frown as he entered the food court. _"That guy, Shinso. He's really serious about doing well enough for the school to consider transferring him to a hero class. He's either really good and they messed up with him in the entrance exams, or his Quirk's just naturally inclined for this sorta thing and he got lucky. I'm leaning towards the latter, here..."_

A number of adult patrons and even a few heroes who came to watch the event and were eating around tables saw him and waved to him, with some even giving him words of encouragement and congratulations. There were a few UA students who hadn't made it to the finals, too. The looks they had given him were significantly less encouraging.

Kyomu ignored them all the same and made his way to the table he saw some of his classmates at.

He sat down quickly next to a floating cheerleader outfit and Tsuyu. Iida was standing at the other end of the table, an armful of orange cans in his hand that he was chugging extremely rapidly. It was an amusing sight to Kyomu, who saw Iida as one of the most straight-laced people he'd ever met, but the sheer volume of drink he was consuming was slightly worrying to him.

"Is Iida trying to drown himself?" he asked. "He's really putting those things away."

"Ribbit." The teen with the Frog Quirk leaned over the table to get a better look. "I think Iida is trying to get as much energy in him as possible before his first fight."

"Seriously?" Groaning, Kyomu turned towards the taller teen. "Iida, you're gonna crash yourself if you keep drinking that junk!"

A few cans slipped out of Iida's arms as he turned towards the black-haired teen. "Nonsense!" he shouted. "This brand of energy drinks is one of the most recommended brands on the market! Advertised by heroes, no less! There's no way consuming an abnormal amount would do any harm to me!"

"Whatever, man, you do you." The Void user waved a hand as he turned back to the others at the table. "Sucks you two didn't get into the finals. I heard you and Mineta made a pretty good strategy with Shoji, Tsuyu."

"Mineta had the bright idea of using Shoji's arms to shield us as I used my tongue to steal others' headbands," she explained. "Wasn't too bad an idea. Wasn't enough, though, I guess."

The floating cheerleader uniform turned towards Kyomu. "I don't think you're really one to talk with the stunt you pulled, Shinka."

Kyomu blinked at the female voice. "... Hagakure?"

"Yeah, I-" The uniform paused. "Shinka, who do you think you sat next to?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, there's a lot of weird Quirks out there. A sentient cheerleader uniform wouldn't be the strangest thing in the world." The shoulder straps on the uniform moved in a way to indicate the wearer face palmed while the smaller girl at his side let out a disappointed sigh. "What was the deal with the whole cheerleader thing you and the rest of the girls did in our class, anyways? I don't think that was scheduled."

He'd found it odd all the girls exclusively from 1-A had come out in cheerleader uniforms during the drawing for the final. Odd, but not enough to question it

"Mineta," they both intoned. It was the only word anybody who knew the shortest person in their class needed to understand the implication behind it.

"Ah." He nodded. "Man, that guy's been putting some work in today."

"Unlike some people," Hagakure grumbled from his side. "I seriously can't believe you just stood there the entire match, Shinka. And you got poor Eikyo cold, too."

"I must agree, Shinka." When Iida had approached them from behind, Kyomu had no clue. "It was a valid strategy, I agree, but not exactly a very heroic one. I turned a blind eye the first time you pulled something like this, seeing as you were playing the part of a villain in that exercise, but you shouldn't make a habit of this."

"I feel like the two of you are just upset you didn't team up with me for an easy win." He couldn't read their faces, Hagakure's being literally invisible while Tsuyu's was mostly blank as always, though they did turn away from Kyomu. "And it's not like I want that fighting style to be my go-to," he continued, turning to Iida. "What would that sound like? Shinka Kyomu, the hero who fights by doing nothing? Don't get me wrong, that'd be pretty sweet, but even I don't think I could pull something like that off."

Iida quirked an eyebrow. "But you're still going to try, aren't you?"

Kyomu's eyes slowly darted away from Iida's accusing ones. "I mean... it's been working pretty good so far for the most part..."

Three exasperated sighs were the result of Kyomu's confirmation of their worst suspicions.

The uniform Hagakure wore sat up from the table. "Well, me and Tsu are gonna go to some of the fun events they set up before the finals. You two wanna go with us?"

Iida shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I need to conserve my strength for the fights ahead. But thank you for the offer."

Kyomu waved them off. "Same. You guys go have fun."

The three of them left shortly after. Hagakure and Tsuyu to their events, and Iida off to prepare more for the finals. Likely to procure more energy drinks in preparation, though Kyomu severely hoped it wasn't the case. All that was left was Kyomu by himself to think about what he'd do about his fights. Mainly ways he was going to kick Shinso's teeth out.

 _"What's his Quirk?"_ he wondered. _"I got a pretty good idea about everybody else's fighting styles if I end up facing off against them. Shinso, though... I got no idea what his power is. I'm actually gonna have to be cautious around the guy. Can't just cut him to ribbons like I do everybody else I attack with my Quirk before they can do anything."_

Generally speaking, it was a sound strategy that had served him well in the past. He was fairly certain an entire legion of heroes would swoop in an arrest him if he tried that with Shinso, though. And the student rubbed Kyomu the wrong way, sure, but that wasn't the kind of thing he killed people over.

"Shinka." Kyomu turned his head around at the call of his name. "Can we talk for a second?"

"Ojiro?" His blonde classmate, who normally looked happy enough whenever Kyomu saw him, was looking particularly dejected at the moment. Even the long, muscular tail behind him was sagging behind him. "Is something the matter? Does it have to do with that whole... thing you did during the finals drawing?"

He began to shake his head, but he paused halfway through and just walked over to Kyomu's table. He sat down with a long, drawn-out groan as his tail slowly scraped the floor underneath him.

Kyomu frowned. Ojiro should have been one of the people that made it to the finals. For whatever reason, however, he'd announced his own forfeit in front of the whole festival, as well as somebody else who should have made the finals. He hadn't elaborated on why it was they'd done what they'd done, however. They'd only said that they'd blacked out halfway through the event and had no recollection of even winning.

The black-haired teen didn't know much about the teen, he would admit. They were classmates. Once in awhile they would get into a small chat and he could recall one occasion where he'd looked over the five-limbed student's homework. He was a nice enough person, though, at least for Kyomu's taste. A decent fighter, too, from what he'd seen.

"You're fighting that Shinso guy in the first round of the finals, right?" Ojiro asked. "The one with the purple hair."

"Yeah." Kyomu could feel his mood plummet when he heard that student's name. "Why do you ask?"

"He did something to me," he said. "He... I don't know what he did. Something to do with his Quirk, maybe. No, that's definitely it. He's the reason I dropped out."

At this, Kyomu instantly gained an interest. "Do tell."

"I don't even know how he did it. He said something to me during the cavalry battle, and just when I responded, I... I was somewhere else and my team had won." Ojiro shook his head. "It's like my mind wasn't my own for a short amount of time. Just a few short minutes. And when I was resigning from the finals, I swear it, Shinka, he was grinning. Like he knew."

"Yeah, that sounds like something he would do," Kyomu admitted. "So he said something to you. You said something back. And at the same time you said something back you blacked out and lost your mind until the end of the round," he summed up.

The blonde nodded. "I'm pretty sure his Quirk is mind control. It's the only explanation I can think of. But... he can't do it whenever he wants. He needs a trigger for it to activate." He looked up and into Kyomu's eyes. "I think he needs someone to respond verbally to him before he can mind control them."

"You think Shinso has the ability to mind control people who talk to him?" Kyomu shook his head. "Ojiro, come on, that sounds way too situational to be true. There's no way a Quirk like that exists."

"Says the person whose Quirk opens up portals to a separate dimension."

Kyomu closed his mouth at that.

"And you saw how Shinso was the day he came to our homeroom along with everybody else, Shinka. The way he got a rise out of you just by speaking words. He has the personality for something like that."

"..." He didn't want to admit it, but he would say that Ojiro had a solid point there. The single mention of his brother had given Kyomu pause that day and had given him the sudden impulse to do something terrible. He hadn't done anything terrible. He'd just told Shinso off and kept walking.

If Ojiro was right, that would have been all he would have needed to make Kyomu helpless if that was, in fact, his power. For all he knew Shinso had just said that to see if he could get Kyomu to say anything at all back at him. A small test in preparation for if they were to fight in the tournament.

Brows creasing, Kyomu harshly drummed his fingers on the table. Small dents were formed where the tips of his digits made contact with the table. _"He scoped me out before the Festival began. Probably tried scoping the whole class out. If that really is his power..."_

"I don't know if that's his power or not. I truly believe it is, though," Ojiro said, rising from the table. "I just wanted to give you that advice going into the fight. Keep your mouth shut, no matter what he says. He can't do anything to you if you don't say anything."

"Oh, you don't have to worry, Ojiro. You'd have to be a complete moron to ignore something like this." Kyomu slowly rose up from the table along with his classmate. A dark look came across his face as his fingers slowly clenched in and out. "Thanks for the heads up. I know just what to do now."

* * *

In short order, the finals had begun. The spectators who had taken their breaks along with everybody else had returned to their seats, and everybody else would be watching Kyomu during the first fight of the finals.

Him against Shinso.

It was one thing to be part of a large crowd that everybody was looking at. Kyomu, while stepping up to the large, cement fighting stage provided by one cement-manipulating UA teacher, found that his nerves were beginning to get the better of him when he found that everybody was looking at him. All these strangers, heroes, his classmates and teacher, and especially everybody back at the orphanage who were likely watching this on TV. Maybe even his brother, too, somewhere out there.

The thought of beating Shinso's face in, who stood at the other end of the square concrete platform, helped to assuage those nerves. He wasn't so sure it was a trick he'd be able to use on anyone else, though.

"It's the first match of the first round of the finals tournament, folks!" At least Present Mic was still up there in his announcer booth to spur things on. Something to distract Kyomu's nerves at the very least, and probably the only time he'd ever be thankful for that big mouth of his. "From the hero course, it's Shinka Kyomu! And from general studies it's Shinso Hitoshi! Let's hear some noise!"

The crowd did indeed erupt in cheers. Kyomu wasn't sure how appropriate such a happy applause felt considering what was about to happen to the teenager standing across from him.

"The rules are simple," the announcer continued. "Force your opponent out of bounds, or immobilize them! You can also win by making your opponent say 'I give up!'"

"Is that all?" Kyomu muttered under his breath, looking straight towards Shinso. "Cake it is, then."

* * *

The majority of class 1-A were up in their own students' spectator seats, ones that had an up-close view at the tournament ring below them. Those present all had their eyes on Kyomu, who thus far had just been staring calmly at his opponent.

"If we look now, folks, we'll see that Kyomu is using his tried-and-true method of sitting still and doing absolutely nothing until he wins," Sen demurred, leaning forwards from his seat. "Doesn't seem to be doing much so far."

"Eikyo, Shinka has... he actually has a plan, right?" Midoriya, who sat right next to the bald teen, asked. "He's actually going to fight, right?"

"Yeah, come on." Behind them both, Kirishima flashed his pointed teeth. "I mean, it's a fight. He can't just stand around and do nothing."

Sen shook his head. "I really don't want to assume Kyomu plans on just standing still until either that Shinso guy passes out from exhaustion or he gets bored and gives up. Knowing him, though, it's one of his strategies."

Midoriya sweatdropped. "I don't think the teachers would allow him to do that..." he weakly chuckled.

Besides the first two, Uraraka fidgeted nervously in her seat. "I don't know, guys. Shinka's never really... fought before, has he? Are we sure he-"

"Of course he can fight, dumbasses." Eyes flashed over towards Bakugo, who was staring down intently at the ring. Not too far away Todoroki was doing the same. "Just watch. We're about to see what he's all about in a few seconds here."

It was an unnerving sentence to be sure, and certainly not one any of them would have ever expected Bakugo to say. They put their eyes back forwards regardless to the pending fight below them, hands clenched in anticipation.

* * *

So far, neither of the two had made a move. Shinso was standing still and calm-like while Kyomu, who stood at the other end of the arena, stood equally calm in a hunched position. It was when Shinso opened his mouth did Kyomu get the first words in.

"I'm just gonna say this now while I got the chance," he said. "I can respect what you're trying to do, but that power of yours isn't any good in the hero world. I'm gonna show you why."

It was a statement that caused Shinso to stop in surprise at the statement. It was just enough time for a small, black portal to open just in front of him only for a fist to fly out and punch him right in the gut.

He doubled over, hands crossed over his stomach as his knees buckled. Another portal opened up right beneath him, a knee coming out to smash him across the nose as he fell towards it. A small cry of pain escape Shinso as well as a stream of blood from his nose as he staggered backwards. The staggering was halted when a hand wrapped around his neck from behind. He was just barely able to turn his head enough to see Kyomu standing behind him, a dark portal at his back closing.

"Mind controlling people that respond to you. It's a nice trick." A clenched hand reached up towards Kyomu in an attempt to punch him. It was caught with ease. "But no matter how good that trick is, it's a one trick pony and nothin' more."

Kyomu squeezed the hand. Multiple bones could be heard popping, with Shinso releasing a hiss of pain as he was forced to kneel down as Kyomu pressed his weight down.

"I found your power out because somebody you used it on told me about it," Kyomu continued. "I want you to let that sink in. I figured out how to beat your power in seconds just because I knew what it was. How long do you think you'd last in the hero world, where you'd have to use your power in public all the time and with all your details plastered on the internet? You wouldn't last a week against anybody other than small-time crooks. Any competent villain with an internet connection could look up your Quirk in seconds and figure out that all they have to do is keep their mouth shut if you say anything. You'd be powerless. Just like you are now."

"W-what would you know?" Shinso panted, looking up at Kyomu from the corner of his eye. "Someone like you who was born blessed with a Quirk perfect for being a hero wouldn't understand a damn thing."

The way Kyomu's eyes had widened in anger so dramatically that they were practically blazing made Shinso regret every trying to say anything.

 _"This Quirk ain't a blessing. I hate this Quirk."_ Kyomu threw Shinso down on the ground and kicked him in the stomach. He was sent flying across the arena. _"I would have taken any other Quirk in the world. My brother's Quirk, one of my classmate's Quirks, anything. Any other Quirk and I probably wouldn't have lashed out like I did that night and destroyed my brother's life. But I got stuck with Void. And because of that he's..."_

A portal appeared in front of Shinso's rolling body, with a foot kicking out from in and slamming into him. Kyomu stepped out moments later, continuing to kick at Shinso and occasionally pick him up just to punch him as well.

To anybody else it would have looked like a beat down. Not a wild, uncontrollable one, but a cold and merciless beating. From Kyomu's perspective he was doing his best to try and not cause any permanent damage to the other teen's body as he attempted to knock him out. All his kicks and punches were held back to a significant degree. And without that mind control power, Shinso was just a normal student. For all Kyomu knew he'd never been in a real fight like he or the rest of the class had been in.

It didn't come as much surprise to him when Shinso got knocked out after ten seconds of the relentless assault.

* * *

The stares he'd gotten on his way out of the arena were fairly noticeable to Kyomu. Noticeable, but not very annoying as he'd made his way directly to the section of the stands assigned to his class. Upon walking up there he noticed that they, his own class, were giving him some of the same stares everybody else was.

Kyomu was too busy looking down at the small robots carrying Shinso out on a stretcher to notice their stares in particular.

"Wow, they even got little robot medics," he said in a surprised tone. "You guys think they're in league with the lunchbots and that one speed recorder robot they had on the first day of school? Possibly the combat robots they keep throwing at us?"

When he received no reply, he looked up to his classmates. Most were silently gawking at him. Todoroki was giving him passing glances, and Bakugo looked the most unfazed compared to everyone else.

"... I got something on my face?" Kyomu asked, scratching at his cheek. "Like- like do I got some of Shinso's blood on me or something? Please tell me I don't. That'd be really gross."

"Y-you're good," Midoriya stated after he and the rest relaxed their tense shoulders at Kyomu's flippant attitude. "Shinka, you... you know you didn't have to be so harsh to Shinso, right?"

"I had to beat him by forcing him out the ring, making him admit defeat, or immobilize him." The black-haired teen had repeated the rules explained while not even casting a single look of sympathy or regret towards Shinso's disappearing form. "I beat him until he was unconscious. I didn't even break any bones or do any serious damage, and Recovery Girl's on standby. What exactly did I do wrong here?" He gave a helpless shrug. "I woulda finished him sooner, but he had a hard head."

"N-nothing, nothing!" This was said by Kaminari, who was waving his hands in Kyomu's direction. "You just, uh, never really fight people directly like that. Congrats on the win, my man."

Iida pushed his glasses up. "Your method of dispatching your opponent was a bit more violent than I would have liked, but still, well done."

Everybody else was giving him awkward nods of approval and a few thumbs-ups here and there. Kyomu took it as a good enough sign that he'd done well, and leaned back in his seat. Sen, sitting by his side, was shaking his head.

Kyomu noticed the head shaking. "What?" he asked.

"Nothin', nothin'," he said. "Just hoping I don't make it far enough so that we fight and that doesn't happen to me."

"If it does, you can just absorb the blows with your Quirk," Kyomu reasoned. "Pretty much everybody with impact-based Quirks are at a disadvantage with you."

"Heh. Yeah." Orange eyes were cast towards Todoroki. "Lucky me I get to fight a guy who doesn't hit things to win. 'Cause that's all I got going for me." A nervous cough went through him. "Anyways, who's next!? It's Ashido and Aaoyama, right!?"

Midoriya nodded. "They already went down to the locker rooms to prepare themselves. There's supposed to be a fifteen-minute interim between matches."

"Ah, good." Sen slumped in his seat. "Good. I got a clock ticking above my head now..."

* * *

 _"'I woulda finished him sooner, but he had a hard head.'"_

That wasn't a statement Bakugo believed for a single second.

Most of everybody else was watching the match between the pink girl and the french guy who sat in the same class as he did. His attention was more focused on the black-haired student sitting next to Baldy. Watching. Listening to him talk and observe the match.

"What do you think, Kyomu?" Baldy asked. "It's kind of even here, right?"

"Eh..." the black-haired teen waved his hand from side-to-side. "Aaoyama's laser is pretty devastating. One direct hit and Ashido's done for. Thing is, he can't fire that thing off too much before he needs to spend time to recover. And she's got mobility with that acid of hers; she can dodge all day. All she's gotta do is wear him down until there's an opening and go in for a hit." His waving hand reached up and scratched his head. "So Aaoyama better learn to lead his target real quick, because he's already lookin' nauseous."

 _"Any idiot could see that Frenchy's already done for,"_ Bakugo though as his eyes briefly surveyed the arena, only to go back to the Void user. _"'Woulda finished him sooner...' What a crock. You threw that sensor ball further than a professional baseball player could throw a baseball on the first day during that damn assessment without using a Quirk. You had enough strength to crack that flunky's skull open with one hit if you really wanted to. If you were smart enough to figure his power out, then you should have been smart enough to do something like that. And those blows weren't aimed at areas meant to incapacitate. They were completely random."_

That flunky with the tired eyes wasn't anything special physically speaking. Bakugo had seen that at a glance. He'd been around Void enough that he knew that his classmate was strong. Unnaturally strong, he'd hazard to say. If he really meant to knock the flunky out as soon as possible he would have went for head blows, preferably near the chin or temple. He had more than enough openings, and the flunky couldn't have stopped him if he tried. Hell, he didn't even have to go that far. He could have just put the flunky in a hold to immobilize him, or better yet he could have just thrown him from the ring.

Instead he'd beat him into unconsciousness.

 _"Is it 'cause of that jab he made at his brother?"_ Bakugo thought. _"Nobody's talked about it ever since the first week of school. I sure as hell didn't care. He never acts like he does, either, so everybody left it alone. Even when his brother came and beat us all he acted the same way he always does, like nothing ever happened. That's all he ever acts like. Annoyingly friendly half the time, lazy and bored the other half. Then he goes and pulls something like this._

 _"Is it all an act? Or is he just... naturally good at hiding his real feelings and too apathetic to show anything out of the ordinary? Because what happened down there, it wasn't a tactical win. It wasn't calculated like most of the other wins I've seen him pull. That was a hate beating, pure and simple."_ He shook his head. _"Doesn't matter why he did it. All that matters is beating him._

 _"His Quirk. Looks weak at first glance, but it's deceptively on the stronger side. Dangerously strong."_ He didn't make a showing of it, but Bakugo kept a close eye on any Quirks in his class that posed real competition to him. Icy Hot's Quirk, for one. Void was near the top of that list because of the applications it held that the user had demonstrated. _"His body alone is freakishly tough for some reason. He survived that fall from the top of USJ like it was nothing, so my explosions'll need a bit more power behind them. That bastard, though... he's probably already got some idea in the works for how he'll take on anybody who has a chance at making it to him. No doubt he's thought of me and the Half and Half bastard. I need to figure out a way to use his power against him."_

It was a decision made long before the pink girl landed an uppercut on Frenchy, instantly knocking him out. He'd beat everybody in this Festival and get to the number one spot.

* * *

Match two had ended as quickly as it had come. Match three, the one against Kirishima and the 1-B student, was quickly underway.

Unbeknownst to Kyomu, that 1-B student, Tetsutetsu, had virtually the exact same Quirk that Kirishima had. So far the match had played out with the both of them trading blow for blow. Said blows only resulted in sparks flying off their skin. Their hits were barely fazing each other.

After minutes had passed it began to grow repetitive.

"Geez, I can't believe this," Kyomu groaned, tiredly resting his back against his seat. The rest of his class, as well as most of the audience, were in a similar state of weariness. "It's just... it's dead even, isn't it?"

"Their Quirks and level of fighting ability are are so similar that the fight's a stalemate," Midoriya replied with a yawn. "But they're still different Quirks, no matter how similar. Because of that, the limits for how long they can remain activated have to be different. One has to fall before the other one."

Sen stretched his arms above his head. "One big problem with that theory, Midoriya."

"Huh? What's that?"

Kyomu pointed at the arena. "They both just fell down at the exact same time."

The whole crowd had leaned forwards in anticipation. After Midnight had stepped into the ring to survey the scene, she'd concluded that the match had ended in a draw.

For once the audience's reply was a collective sigh of relief instead of thunderous applause.

* * *

Match four was one or the more worrying ones in the eyes of most of those in class 1-A. The not-so-old age-old question of what would happen when someone with a support Quirk went and fought somebody with a combat Quirk. In this case, Uraraka versus Bakugo.

"Welp, she had a good run," Kyomu said with a solemn bow of his head. Most others in the class did the same, already knowing the outcome of this match. Bakugo was already a naturally-gifted fighter along with his offensive Quirk. Uraraka could make things float, and the most combat he'd ever seen her do is swing a pole at Iida during the faux villain exercise.

It wasn't very ideal for her.

"You can't call it now just because of their Quirks," Midoriya argued, though the way his eyes were wavering at the ring down below said much for his doubts. "She... well, she got this far, didn't she!?"

A sad croak sounded behind them. "Uraraka's strong, but Bakugo..." Tsuyu looked away. "He's too strong for her at this point."

Various nods of agreement all around. The ending to this fight was so painfully obvious that Koda was even shaking in fright.

"Not every hero's a great fighter, Midoriya. You know that better than anybody since you stare at them all the time," Kyomu said. "That's why there's so many of them; they fulfill a variety of roles. She wants to be a rescue hero, and there's nothing wrong with that." He shrugged. "This is just a bad matching for her."

To nobody's surprise, she'd lost in the end. To most everybody's surprise, she'd lasted longer than what they'd all expected. She'd even baited Bakugo into creating lots of rubble and tried dropping it on him in an attempt at knocking him out. It hadn't worked, of course, but it had been a good try. Enough to earn Kyomu's respect, at the very least.

"She'd be pretty decent if she learned how to at least throw a punch," he said once the winner was announced. "I think Bakugo thinks so, too."

Midoriya looked at him in surprise. "What makes you say that?"

"He stared at her for about three seconds after beating her. That's more attention than he gives almost anybody."

* * *

"The hell..." Usually when Kyomu felt angry, he kept it under wraps good enough. It was a habit he'd learned after years of harboring a grudge towards villains. And once in awhile, yes, he'd slip. Like with Shinso.

He was feeling himself slipping again with Sen once again wrapped in a thermal blanket, shivering with everybody else giving him pitying looks. This was mainly due to the fact that match five, the one where he went against Todoroki, had lasted all of five seconds. The heterochromatic student made his opening move a large enough blast of ice that it could have frozen half the damn stadium if he really wanted to. It was an act that had stunned the entire audience, even Present Mic, into silence. They had to take extra time just to melt it.

Sen had been caught right in the middle of that with ninety percent of his body being frozen in place. It was an automatic loss for him.

"I mean, h-h-he said he was sorry," Sen stuttered. "S-said he w-was stress-s-sed over something."

Kyomu didn't find that a very good excuse seeing as the amount of ice Todoroki had made had peaked far above the stadium and could be seen from five kilometers away.

"He doesn't look very sorry," he mumbled, looking over at Todoroki who sat far away from them. He'd barely cast a passing glance at him. "Agh. You'll be fine, right."

"Yeah. I guess." He dipped his head downwards. "What's my mom gonna say though, man? I got frozen twice doing this dumb Festival." He cast an accusing glare at Kyomu. "One of which, I might add, was your fault."

"Uh..." Kyomu averted his gaze. "Oh gee, is the next match starting already? Midoriya and Kaminari are already set up down there!"

Sen had grumbled under his breath, but turned his attention to the ring for the sixth match. Kyomu had maintained his focus on Todoroki.

 _"Dunno what that guy's problem is,"_ he thought. _"All that power against Sen. He could have at least held back a bit. Guess I'll just pay him back if we end up fighting."_

* * *

Much like match five, match six ended almost immediately. Kaminari had only managed to let out a few yellow sparks before Modoriya flicked him. Unfortunately for the blonde, that flick had been done with enough power behind it to blow him out of the ring.

Midoriya broke his index finger in the process, but still technically a win.

With a groan, Kyomu shook his head. _"I know he didn't have any other options considering he couldn't even get close to Kaminari without getting shocked, but still."_ His head shaking ceased. _"Hope he doesn't do anything more drastic than that moving on."_

* * *

The seventh match was an... interesting one. Iida was trying to fight his opponent, Hatsume, the girl in the support class. Hatsume was... doing something that wasn't fighting. Kyomu wasn't really sure what. She was mainly just slapping various gadgets on an unwilling Iida in an effort to demonstrate them.

"I didn't fall asleep and wake up in the middle of a commercial, did I?" he asked nobody in particular. "Because this is a really weird advertisement."

"A lot of the big support companies like to scout out the Festival for any prosperous-looking students," Midoriya explained, green eyes trained on the arena. "I think this is a way for her to... show her merchandise. I guess."

"Oh. Man, poor Iida."

In the end, the poor speedster had been to win by way of Hatsume jumping off the ring after unveiling her products. The look on Iida's face upon returning to his seat said enough as to whether he felt like he won or not.

Kyomu was left pondering if the word "win" was even applicable to the situation.

* * *

"Come on, already. Dodge, or attack, or better yet just move." With an explosive sigh Kyomu rubbed at his face. "The hell is she doing out there?"

Match eight was going extremely well for Tokoyami and his Dark Shadow. For Yaoyorozu, not so much, because as it stood Dark Shadow was rapidly assaulting her with swipes from his clawed and shadowy hands and was successfully pushing her to the ring's border.

Her response? Defend with a shield she'd created. Which in itself wasn't a bad move, except all she was doing was standing there, tanking hits. At this rate she'd be pushed right out of the ring.

"The ability to create literally any object she wants and she- agh, this is frustrating to watch," Kyomu complained. "She made a cannon once to shoot that dumb sensor ball during the application test day one. She can't make a stun gun or something to get at Tokoyami while Dark Shadow's busy with her?"

Sen waved a hand in response. "Come on, man, this is Yaoyorozu we're talking about here. I bet this is all part of her strategy. She uses the shield to occupy Dark Shadow, then-"

The announcer's mic crackled to life. "And she's out! Tokoyami wins!"

Kyomu snorted. "Yeah, real killer strategy right there."

* * *

And thus, the time had come for the winners of the first matches to face off against one another once more for the honor of competing in the semi-finals. And as the brackets would have it, Kyomu was up against Ashido.

As Kyomu had expected, she was at her end of the ring hopping from foot to foot with an excited look on her face. Kyomu, of course, was standing completely still with his form hunched forwards slightly with his eyes trained on her.

 _"She uses acid. Isn't really the kind of person to throw it on someone else and horribly disfigure them, though."_ Ashido was just too nice a person to ever do something like that. He just couldn't see a bubbly attitude like that next to a melting face. _"She's probably just gonna use it to slide around and hit me like she did her first match. Using the acid defensively instead of offensively."_

"You look so down!" His head picked up when she shouted over at him. "Shinka, come on! You're on TV and everything! You could at least act a little excited!"

She was one of the only people he knew who could be so optimistic despite the fact they were about to fight. He chuckled. "Sorry, Ashido. I guess I'm still a bit nervous around large crowds. It's hard to put on a heroic face in front of so many others."

The pink teen laughed at that. "You chose a swell profession for that, huh? Anyways, you ready?" A small amount of liquid began to pour from her palms. "Don't think you're gonna get me as easy as the last guy, now!"

"And don't think a single punch is gonna be enough to take me out." Kyomu pressed his fingers together. "Not like you'll get that far."

 _Snap!_

The wall of flickering darkness that appeared between the two of them had manifested near-instantaneously, which, for Kyomu's portals to Void, was the norm. It was a wall that extended vertically up to five meters, while horizontally it extended from one end of the ring to the other. Essentially a two-dimensional wall that cut the two competitors off.

"Alright, Ashido, you know how Void works. Touch the wall and you're scattered to Void." He didn't know if she could hear him from here. The soundwaves of his voice should have been able to carry around the wall, but the words he spoke were for the most part himself. "You can't go around it without going out of bounds, and it's too high for you to jump over it. You've got no way of avoiding it." He snapped once more. "Do with that what you will."

The wall started to slide forwards towards Ashido. Distressed sounds followed from the other end.

"What the- ah!" The sounds of what Kyomu imagined was frantic footsteps came from Ashido's side of the wall. "Y-you never said you could move the portals once you've made them!" she wailed.

"Would you believe I figured it out last week?" Kyomu lowered himself to the ground and sat down as the wall continued to advance. "Pretty neat trick, huh? The applications are endless. Like pushing you out of the ring, for instance."

"This is totally cheating!"

Kyomu shook his head. "Nah, Ashido. This ain't cheating. This is winning."

* * *

A loud _smack!_ was heard as Sen's hand collided with his face. "He's doing it again," he mumbled. "He's winning while standing completely still. He even sat down again, too. Like during the faux villain exercise."

Around him were the various looks of exasperation mixed with acceptance present on his classmates' faces. They, too, were in a similar mood upon seeing Kyomu's strategy for beating Ashido. It'd come to a point where they'd expected something like this out of him.

"His plan for defeating her is strong, it's just..." An irritated sigh escaped from the bird-headed student. "Is it clever? Intuitive? Lazy?"

"I'm pretty sure all those words describe him," Kirishima said. "Anybody think Ashido can win this?"

A sleeve rose into the air. "Oh, oh! Couldn't she dig a hole with her acid and hide in there until the wall passes over her?" Hagakure suggested.

Jiro shook her head. "Wall's comin' in too fast for her to pull something like that off. Hate to say it, but she's done for. She can melt a lot of things with that acid of hers, put she can't melt an empty dimension."

In the midst of their conversation, Ashido had fallen out of the ring due to the encroaching wall. The winner was instantly called.

* * *

Did some part of him feel bad for winning so cheaply against Ashido? It was a question that Kyomu was unsure of in all honesty. He supposed that if he thought about it really hard, there may have been the smallest shred of regret for having to have won in this kind of way. She was, after all, a classmate. And somebody who brought life to the class, to boot. At the very least he liked her enough to acknowledge her existence.

But winning any other way would have likely required physical contact, meaning he would have had to punch her. Maybe kick her, too. Perhaps throw, but he didn't know how long he would have been able to maintain a hold with somebody who could secrete acid from their skin. This was was simpler in the end, for both him and her. And somebody needed to speed things along after the stunt Todoroki pulled.

It didn't seem to change the fact that she was slumped on the ground in defeat. So he'd hopped down from the ring to offer her a hand.

"You, uh, did your best?" He wasn't sure what to say to a person who'd lost utterly and completely to him. And technically she hadn't done anything but lose. "Sorry, that's all I got."

She looked up at him with an incredibly skeptical look on her face. Then she snorted, accepting his hand and allowing him to pull her up. "I admit it wasn't cheating," she said, "but it was still a cheap move."

"Yeah. Probably," Kyomu agreed. "I just really didn't want you hitting me with that acid. It's terrifying."

Ashido grinned at this. "Acid is the thing you're terrified of?" she asked. "Wasn't like I was gonna burn you or anything like that."

"I know." He looked upwards to the seats his classmates were at. "Well, see you back in the spectator seats. Good fight."

He didn't know if it was against regulation to use his Quirk to open two portals to instantly move back to his seat. Maybe it was fine, as the stadium was technically UA property. He didn't much care, and if anybody raised an issue for him using his own power for all of two seconds he'd deal with it. Or ignore it. Whichever was easier.

Ashido, as he noticed while sitting down and closing the portals, was more keen on just walking away than surfing on the acid. He didn't much blame her. Cementos couldn't repair the grass like he could the ring.

 _"Ashido Mina,"_ Kyomu thought as he watched her walk back to the locker rooms. _"Her Quirk's kind of like mine in that it's inherently deadly with not much flexibility. Not like Bakugo's, which has all sorts of applications if he's creative enough. Like mine, that's able to hurt others so easily and make things convenient for me. It really is a selfish Quirk, and that's the only reason I can tolerate it, even if I don't like it. After all, the whole reason for me being here is rather... selfish._

 _"You're different, though."_ By now she'd disappeared outside of their view. _"You're like everyone else in the class. You just wanna be a hero to help people. And even though your Quirk isn't inclined towards something like that, because it's selfish like mine, you're finding ways around that to make it work like a hero's. Like the way you used it to punch out Aaoyama. Maybe I could have been like you if things had gone differently for me."_

Kyomu decided there that he had more respect for his classmate than he thought he did.

* * *

Match ten would, of course, be the match between Bakugo and whoever it was that would win the tie between Kirishima and Tetsutetsu. A tiebreaker that was, quite childishly chosen in Kyomu's opinion, to be decided through an arm wrestling match between the two. It was an event that gone on so long that everybody had worried it would result in another stalemate until Tetsutetsu's hardening weakened and allowed the other to win.

Apparently Midoriya had been right when he said that the two Quirks, similar yet different, would have differing limits.

Of course, it hadn't helped Kirishima much in his match against Bakugo, who'd tossed so many explosions at the Hardening user that his own Quirk had eventually given out like Tetsutetsu's. He'd at the very least managed to get a couple good hits in on Bakugo, though. And through it all Kyomu could have sworn that the two were smiling. Having fun, even.

Bakugo was quick to wipe away those expressions once he'd won.

"Guess you're gonna be fighting him, huh, Kyomu?" Sen mused at his side. "Don't think that wall trick's gonna fly with him."

"No, he'd just use his explosions to propel himself over it," Kyomu agreed. "Huh. What to do..."

* * *

"IT'S YOUR POWER!"

Match eleven would be the one that would confuse Kyomu the most.

Todoroki was an odd one in his eyes. He didn't talk to Kyomu much outside of passing greetings. He'd thought it was because of what his brother had done to his father, but he acted like that with everyone. Same for after USJ when Hikari had bested them all. It actually seemed like he didn't acknowledge what Hikari had done to Endeavor.

Said a lot for how the guy looked at his own father.

He didn't show much emotion, either. The brief flash of anger he'd shown when he'd flash-frozen half the stadium fighting Sen was the most anybody in the whole class had ever seen.

His Quirk was another mystery. Everyone said he had the ability to control ice and fire. Mr. Aizawa had even mentioned it once or twice when talking about their individual Quirks in application lessons. Kyomu had never seen him use the fire side, though, even everything from everyone's word to the way the teen look suggested he could. For whatever reason, he refused to use it. Even in a situation like USJ with real villains attacking them, he hadn't used fire.

It was why it was so surprising when fire started blazing on the left side of his body after Midoriya, fingers broken from him overusing his Super Power Quirk, had shouted those three words. And along with the fire came a very disconcerting smile from Todoroki, the first emotion he'd ever seen on the teen. Some kind of cross between gratefulness, disbelief, and competitive excitement.

"I can't believe it." Even his fellow classmates were confused at the sight, as Yaoyorozu, one of the more intelligent in their class, cupped her chin in thought. "He never uses his fire. He outright refuses to, it seems. So why now...?"

Shoji shrugged. "Maybe it was something Midoriya said," he guessed. "Who knows? The guy's so aloof that it's hard to tell anything with that guy."

Kyomu didn't doubt it was a strong possibility. Frankly, he just didn't know what the deal withe the student was. And as it stood, he was more focused on the fact that Midoriya kept flicking fingers that were already broken at Todoroki. The digits on his right hand were so purple they were almost black at this point.

 _"That idiot..."_

* * *

"Eh?" The first one to vocalize everyone's confusion at the beginning of match twelve had been Mineta. He'd climbed up to the back of his seat to look out to the ring along with everybody else, where Tokoyami stood. Alone.

Iida was nowhere to be found.

"Is Iida... gonna come out soon?" Sero asked, rubbing at one of his round elbows. "He's gonna be disqualified if he doesn't go into the ring."

"He isn't coming." Multiple pairs of eyes turned to Uraraka, who had just at that moment stepped up to the student section. "Iida just left. Apparently there was an accident with his brother."

"His brother?" Midoriya sat up in his seat. Kyomu found himself glaring at the cast around his right hand. "Did he say what happened?"

She shook her head. "He got a call from his mother and left without saying much else."

Worried whispers cropped up all around them, and the crowd all around them began to stir as Iida's forfeit was announced by Present Mic. The information went to Kyomu and was processed in a time far above normal as he accepted the fact and stood up from his seat, moving past his fellow students on his way to the locker rooms.

The semi-finals were up next. And he knew exactly who it was he would be fighting.

Dark blue eyes locked on to red as he walked past. Bakugo's eyes had snapped to Kyomu the second Tokoyami had won be default, and continued to follow him even as he walked out of sight. And even through the thick, concrete walls Kyomu could almost feel the intense glare Bakugo was likely still giving him.

This was the fight he'd been dreading the most out of all his possible fights.

* * *

 **A/N- A lotta people who go over the Sports Festival like to gloss over a lot of the fights. Writing this, I'm thinking I probably should have just skipped them entirely. But hey, here we are, with me cutting this whole thing into two chapters because it went on way longer than I thought it would.**

 **I also remember back when I was planning this story from start to finish that the Sports Festival would be a pain to write because of the bracket system, to which point I went "Eh, I'll just skip over remaking the brackets because of the new characters and deal with it when I get there." Well, I got there, and then had to actually write a bracket out so I could shuffle characters around correctly so I could add two OCs into the mix without utterly wrecking it.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 18- Finals**

* * *

"And here we are. The fights that actually matter, huh, brother?"

Hikari wouldn't be one to shirk the efforts of everybody he'd seen compete in the tournament thus far. The fights he'd seen had been... sub-par in terms of the performance he'd expected. Below average, especially when compared to some of the fighting he'd seen other heroes do. But maybe that was him raising his standards too high. Or maybe it was because they were still technically training. Not fully-realized heroes, at least not yet.

His brother seemed to think the same with the way he'd been performing thus far.

It was almost like they were in elementary school all over again. Every test and challenge put in front of them being completed with minimal difficulty in their part. Challenges so trivial it had required the barest amounts of thinking and effort. It's just how they were. And he couldn't help but see the same dull look in his brother's eyes throughout this whole event. During the race, the cavalry event, and even the fights. It'd just been a breeze for him. So much so he'd sat down during one of the fights.

It was boring for him. And Hikari was bored watching.

But this next fight was going to be different. Bakugo, if Hikari remembered correctly. He was the blonde with the Quirk that caused explosions he'd knocked out in USJ. He'd gone down like the rest, no doubt, but he'd at least put in decent effort. That, and he'd lasted exactly one single second longer than he'd thought he would. It was more fight than some of the pro heroes he'd fought during his prison escape had put him. And he'd seen the way he fought the others before Kyomu, too. He was, in a word, gifted. Both in mind and body, as well as his Quirk. And if he had the right ambition, with enough training and experience Hikari could tell he'd be a great hero. Somebody up there with heroes like Endeavor, or that jean-wearing hero he heard a lot of people talk about. Maybe even All Might.

Somebody who could actually give his brother a hard time. Give him a challenge.

There was the other one, too, that Kyomu would fight if he got past him. Todoroki, who Hikari had no doubt would beat the falcon-headed student. He'd also knocked him out as USJ. And like Bakugo, he also had an incredibly strong Quirk. His mind, though, Hikari was unsure of. The reluctance to use fire was plain to see. And he seemed to be lashing out a lot at his competitors.

He would... probably give his brother a decent challenge like Bakugo would. Maybe.

Either way, Hikari would finally get so see something good while sitting up here. And maybe he'd get so see how much his brother had improved since their fight.

* * *

He'd be fine. He totally would. It was Kyomu they were considering here, right? And it wasn't like this was going to be a full-on deadly fight or anything. It was the Sports Festival. It was sanctioned. Worst case scenario he'd only get as beat up as Uraraka and be back a few minutes after the match ended straight from Recovery Girl.

These facts that played through Sen's head didn't make him feel any better about the coming match that he and the rest of class 1-A, barring Iida, was witnessing at the moment.

"And here we are, ladies and gentlemen! The first match in the semi-finals!" Present Mic's voice was about the only cheerful thing Sen could see in this situation. "And at one end! He's hot-headed! He's hot-tempered! And you better believe you'll be burned by his Quirk if you're not careful! You know him! You've seen him! Give it up for Bakugo!"

"Shinka's on the other end." The tired, almost emotionless voice of Aizawa was more appropriate for how Sen was feeling.

"Should we start taking bets now?" Almost the entire class's heads swiveled in Kaminari's direction. He grinned nervously. "Hey, come on. I'm just kidding."

Sen could feel himself shaking his head. "Gambling in a country where that's illegal. Some hero you are," he huffed, turning back to the fighting ring. "Ah, boy."

"You seem worried." His bald head turned to the side. Uraraka was there looking up at him with a worried look in her brown eyes. Midoriya, sitting next to her, was giving him the same look. "It'll be fine. Bakugo can be a bit... intense, sure, but I fought him and I turned out fine! Even if I, you know, lost. Heh heh..."

"Yeah." A small smile came to Sen's face. "You holdin' up okay, Uraraka? Bakugo was kinda knockin' you around out there."

She nodded. "Oh, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." She turned to the ring. "And... I think Shinka'll be fine, too. Even if he does lose, he's tough."

"And at the end of the day, it's just the Sports Festival," Midoriya added in. "We'll have two more chances at this once this one's over. It's important to take it seriously, there's no reason to worry about all of us. Win or lose, our end goal remains the same. Becoming heroes." He smiled nervously. "Though, uh, I think Kacc... Bakugo is taking this a bit more seriously than he needs to."

The use of the Explosion user's family name instead of the nickname Sen and everybody else had grown accustomed to Midoriya using when referring to Bakugo surprised him, but only briefly. He still smiled, though, and leaned back in his seat.

"Yeah. I'm just a bit worried one of 'em'll take this a bit too far. You know how they both can be."

Uraraka laughed. "You're a really good friend," she said. "It's nice! I think it's a sign you'll be a great hero."

"Man, I hope." Nervousness began to take over again as the fight started. "I really hope so."

* * *

Bakugo Katsuki. Of all the people Kyomu didn't want to fight, he'd be at the top of that list.

He'd once heard a saying: no plan survived first encounter with the enemy. Kyomu thought it was a ridiculous saying when he'd first heard it. It sounded contradictory and made it seem like plans were worthless if they just fell apart once put into action. He'd made plenty of plans since coming to UA. For the most part, they'd panned out. It was a stupid saying in his opinion.

Bakugo was living proof that there may have been some truth to the saying.

Pragmatically speaking, he was naturally gifted in combat. That much was plain to see to Kyomu. One of the one's with most potential in his class, maybe both classes. No, definitely both classes with the performance Kyomu had seen 1-B display. And his intelligence was a fierce one. One naturally inclined for fighting. It's why Kyomu didn't bother making a plan when it came to Bakugo. He was just simply too intelligent, despite his attitude. Angry, sure, but not angry enough he could be exploited of it without him knowing. He was flexible enough that he could adapt to his opponent's strategies. Simply put, he was too good at fighting.

Kyomu decided he'd just wing it.

"And here we are. The semi-finals, Bakugo. Just where you wanted us to fight." The Void user's hands were down by his side, instead of being pocketed or clasped behind his head. Ready to move at a moment's notice.

Bakugo didn't say anything first. Then he scoffed. "Woulda liked it more if it were the finals," he said. "Damn random placement screwed us over on that. 'Least Icy Hot made it to the semis with us."

"Yeah, I guess. So-"

The loud explosions followed by a screaming blonde teen flying towards him cut off any words Kyomu had attempted so say.

He'd dodged. It was a sloppy dodge that Kyomu would have admonished even on his off days, but at the speed Bakugo was flying at him it was the best he could have managed. Even with the distance he managed to make the resulting shockwave from Bakugo landing on the spot he'd jumped from and firing off another explosion on said spot caused Kyomu to slide back a good five meters away.

"You know what your problem is?" The arms that had been raised to shield Kyomu's face lowered as Bakugo turned to talk to him. "You don't take things seriously. You never do. And the fact that you've been so successful without putting any effort in pisses me off."

The words caused Kyomu to freeze on the spot as Bakugo continued to glare at him. _"He sounds like them. All those jealous kids,"_ he thought. _"He's not jealous, though. Not him of all people. He just... what was it he said? Something about my entire existence making him upset?"_

He hadn't put much thought into it at first. He'd wrote if off as Bakugo's unrealistic attempt at shaping some kind of diamond-in-the-rough-super-hero backstory for him to lean on once he went pro to help him become number one. It was more than that, though, once Kyomu saw the furious look on Bakugo's face. Somebody who, while having come from a better place than Kyomu, wasn't that much higher. Somebody who likely worked extremely hard to get this far, and had the natural talent to back it up.

So what would Kyomu look like to somebody like that? Somebody who, unbeknownst to them, was born with an unnatural- depending on one's outlook over the matter- amount of talent and ability. Enough that he'd never been properly challenged before and had mainly just breezed through life. How would Bakugo react to somebody like him? Somebody that outright defied everything he'd probably done to get this far? See him with scorn, bitterness? Most likely just raw anger, much like what he was projecting now. Especially since he was in his way to the top.

No wonder he was so angry at him.

"So that's how it is." Black wisps began to flow around Kyomu's hands. "You'll have to forgive me for being so shortsighted, Bakugo, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm winning here."

His intention was to open a portal right behind Bakugo's head and punch him with enough force to rattle his brain and knock him out. He'd succeeded in opening two portals, one next to his ready fist and one right behind Bakugo's head. What he wasn't prepared for was Bakugo winding one of his hands behind him so that his palm was facing the portal behind his head and firing and explosion into it.

The concussive force that shot out from the portal next to Kyomu was the next surprise. It hit him right below his rib cage, and felt akin to a large sledgehammer slamming into him. He softly grunted and was forced backwards a few steps as the portals closed, holding a hand to his wounded side as he looked up. Bakugo was savagely grinning at him.

 _"... I see."_ Understanding came across Kyomu's face as he looked down at his unoccupied hand. _"He predicted I was going to use those portals to extend the reach of my attacks, like what I did with Shinso. So he used the portal against me and fired an explosion into the portal and let it travel through the other end to me. Normally that wouldn't work, and in part it didn't. Any heat from his explosions was lost to the cold of Void. The concussive force of his blasts, though... there's nothing in Void to slow it down. He may as well have fired that at me point-blank."_

"Alright, I'll give you that one," he grunted. Multiple snaps resounded from his hand as dozens of small portals appeared all around the ring. "That was a one-way trip for your explosion, though. No telling which portal leads to the other one with this many."

It was partly true. The technique Kyomu used to teleport from one portal to another may have looked mysterious to others, but to Kyomu, it was a simple act of placement. Just was portals to Void were simple, black windows in this dimension, in Void it was the opposite with window that lead into this dimension. And as it stood, he had free placement of the portals. While two portals may appear far apart, in Void they would be mere centimeters apart from each other.

That was where the limitation ended, however. They were two-dimensional windows, and while Kyomu could bend those windows, he couldn't link more than two together using this method. One portal was connected to another due to their distance in Void, and that was that. No more, no less. Bakugo had no way of knowing this, though Kyomu suspected it was something he could easily discover. Even if he did, Kyomu had been the one to place the portals. He knew where each portal lead to, and Bakugo didn't. Firing an explosion off in a portal would risk him blasting himself through one of the portals closer to him.

It was a fact that Bakugo seemed to inherently realize, as he held off on immediately attacking and chose to observe the black portals all around them. His focus was instead trained on to Kyomu, his hands flexing before they were both aimed at Kyomu. He saw multiple sparks go off in his palms before a loud boom and a wall of fire erupted from his palms and shot towards him.

A black wall appeared right in front of Kyomu, and the explosion was swallowed up and sent to Void. What was left in its wake was a heavy amount of smoke. Smoke that was heavily wafting through the various portals he'd made only to flow out of other portals. It was a fact Kyomu had paid no mind to until he noticed Bakugo staring at the smoke trails both entering and leaving the portals. And then, grinning once more, he sent an explosion through one of the portals near him.

Either a car had flown into Kyomu's head or the explosion had came out of a portal near his head and struck him dead on. He saw colors flash vividly through his vision, and a loud ringing sound was heard as he stumbled, though he managed to keep his balance. Another explosive force of pressure exited from a portal near him and hit him once more. Again and again he felt explosive forces rock his body as Bakugo ran from portal to portal, sending an explosion through before going on to the next.

 _"He's correctly predicting which portal is connected to which. How... of course."_ The tenth or so concussive blast to hit him was the last as all the portals closed. _"He used the smoke from that big attack that was wafting through the portals. He must have eyed the trails going in an out of portals to match them together."_

It was an outright ridiculous strategy that Kyomu didn't think anybody would ever have thought of. Bakugo had done it in seconds. It was twice now he'd thwarted one of his strategies. And as Kyomu ran towards Bakugo, black trails streaming out from his hands, he couldn't help but feel impressed. He was being pushed by somebody his age that wasn't his brother. He almost couldn't believe it.

He wanted to see how far it could go.

A black portal opened in front of Kyomu as he ran, and he kicked a foot through. A second portal opened on front of Bakugo, with the foot flying through before Bakugo could aim for another blast. Instead he crossed his arms in front of himself to guard, but a third portal opened in front of the foot right before it hit him and exited a forth that led right to the middle of his back. Kyomu landed the kick successfully, while Bakugo was sent spinning to the arena's concrete floor as the black-haired teen pulled his foot back through and closed the portals. The blonde gagged out, the wind having been knocked out of him from that one single kick, though he soon shakily rose to his feet with his face growing even angrier.

Explosions started bursting out from his palms life rocket jets spitting fire, and he _moved_.

He'd used his explosions to maneuver behind Kyomu in an attempt to kick him. Kyomu had whirled around just quick enough to shield himself by placing a portal in Bakugo's direction, though this just caused him to fly away using his improvised thrusters. Again and again he moved around Kyomu, sometimes shooting him with explosions from a distance while other times going in for a close-range attack. The arena began to blacken with the amount of portals Kyomu had created just in an effort to shield himself from Bakugo. So much, in fact, that they were actually beginning to block his view.

It was at the same time he realized this that a scorching blast of heat hit him in his side. His gym uniform became scorched in that spot and he felt his bones creak, though when he looked to the source of the explosion he didn't see Bakugo. He heard a yell from behind him followed by the sound of another explosion, but, due to still recovering from the most recent attack, couldn't turn around. It hit him square in his back and forced Kyomu down to his knees, with all the portals disappearing soon after.

"I figured it out, you bastard," Kyomu heard. He looked up to see Bakugo standing a fair distance away from him, panting heavily with sweat dripping heavily his hands. "The limit of your Quirk."

"Limit...?" Kyomu repeated. "What are you on about?"

"There's no such thing as a perfect Quirk, Void Boy. They're not some mystical power straight from fantasy. They're products of DNA and evolution like every other part of our body, and because of that, there's gotta be some physical limitation" he said. "During the faux villain exam, you placed portals a fair distance away from yourself. Even though you were on another floor completely, you managed to maintain those portals without any effort on your part. Just now you were placing portals left and right. It got me thinking. If your limit wasn't the amount of portals you could place or how long you could keep 'em, open, what was?" He grinned. "It's distance."

Kyomu's eyes widened, and he felt his body stiffen and breath catch. Inside of his chest, he felt his heart begin to beat at a more rapid pace.

"During the race, you didn't open a portal all the way to the finish line and step through," Bakugo continued. "It would have been an easy win for you, but instead you just ran while making short jumps with your portals at some points. But then I remembered all the times you ever opened a portal in front of the class, and every time it was somewhere near you. Somewhere _in front of you_.

"You need to see where you're opening those damn portals before you place them anywhere," he concluded. "You can look away and maintain them for as long as you want afterwards. You can even make as many as you damn well please. But you can't just make them appear wherever you want them to."

It wasn't like he was wrong in any capacity. In fact, to Kyomu's complete shock, it was the one crux to his power. If the area he was creating a portal wasn't within his cone of vision, he simply couldn't create it. And it was a theory that Bakugo not only had just tested on him, but capitalized on as well. He'd continued to fly around to try and strike at Kyomu's blind spots, but every time he'd had to turn around and shield himself with a portal. He'd done it so many times that Kyomu'd practically made cover for Bakugo to conceal himself with just to attack Kyomu from behind.

All of this information was collected in Kyomu's mind in less than a second. It took him even longer to process it all, around two seconds, and after doing so his head dipped downwards.

He laughed. It came as a small, quiet chuckle at first, but soon it progressed into into normal laughter. His hand soon found itself gasping his own face, and the laughs were blown into nearly maniacal ones as his head lifted up. This had earned him an odd look from Bakugo, and even odder looks from the crowd that the both of them had been outright ignoring since the start of their fight. It wasn't that surprising to him, as he was fairly sure he'd never displayed such a thing to anybody before. But in his current state he didn't much care as his laughter tapered off and his hand slid from his face only for his eyes to meet Bakugo's.

"Bakugo. Bakugo Katsuki," Kyomu exclaimed, mouth smiling widely. "You're... extremely special. You, out of everybody that's ever fought me, noticed all of those details. You've wounded me so much, dissected my Quirk from mere observation...! It's amazing. Truly, it is!"

He'd fought villains with less fighting ability than Bakugo. Small-time ones in alleys, sure, but villains nonetheless. The hero that had caught him at one point that Kyomu had admitted his brother to killing hadn't been nearly as talented at the teen standing before him. His brother was the only person who'd ever fought him that pushed Kyomu until he failed in that fight. And back then there had been so many emotions going through him that he couldn't sort any of it.

Here, though, in this controlled environment and fighting somebody who was pushing him, he felt excitement. He didn't know why he felt this, nor did he know why this feeling overwrote everything else he felt from the slight worry of him failing to the everything else he'd been thinking prior to this fight. All he knew was that this feeling excitement was elating him. He liked this feeling, and wanted more of it.

"Don't stop now. I want to keep going." Newfound vigor pulsed through Kyomu's body as black wisps spread from his arms and began to encircle his entire body. His dark blue irises even began to glow, though Kyomu himself was unaware of this fact.

All Bakugo could do was stare at the other teen in complete shock. Slowly, though, a small grin found itself growing on his own face. "So this is what it takes a rise outta you, huh? Alright, fine." Explosions began crackling from his palms as he took a step forwards. "You asked for it!"

Explosions and swirling darkness exploded out from the center of the ring as the two teens collided.

* * *

 _"This could be problematic in the long run."_

Tired eyes stared down at the fighting arena below, where the two teens were still engaged in a drawn-out brawl that had gone on for the better part of ten minutes now. Not only was it the longest fight that had gone on since the start of the tournament, but it was also the one that was making the crowd cheer the loudest. And it wasn't hard for Aizawa to see why; Shinka and Bakugo were making a flashy showing down there with both their Quirks and fighting prowess. It was something that had all the audience members leaning against the edge of their seats for, and a majority of the heroes in the crowd were even watching with interest.

His partner in the announcer box wasn't making things any easier, either. Every single time something exciting happened Present Mic would energetically announce it, and he was getting more and more excited with every second of the fight to the point he was practically screaming his announcements. He didn't know if he was more upset over this or the fact that he'd grown used to the man's antics over the years he'd known him.

For Aizawa, though, it was a different matter. If the bandages covering his face from the USJ attack weren't there, the deep frown plastered on the teacher's face would be plain to see.

 _"UA prides itself on having one of, if not the, most difficult hero courses in all of Japan. That is, by design, intentional. It's the job of the foundation and its staff to continually challenge the students over and over for the duration of their education here to eke out as much potential as possible to turn it into raw strength and experience. To place wall after wall in front of them, each higher than the last so that they stand tall upon graduating. That's the whole meaning behind Plus Ultra._

 _"Shinka Kyomu... is a bit of an aberration when it comes to that system,"_ Aizawa thought. _"Technically speaking, he has some of the most potential out of everybody else in the entire class. But above that, he came to UA way stronger than the average student is, and had a staggering intellect to boot. Because of that, he's, for the most part, been breezing through UA so far without much of a struggle. I see it every time he comes to homeroom. That bored expression on his face as he completes his assignments, and half the time he's practically sleeping. All Might says his performance in hero basics is pretty much the same, too. He completes training exercises like they're nothing. He's not being pushed like all the other students are, and therefor he hasn't grown nearly as much as them. He's entirely too reliant on his natural talents, but because those talents are so powerful he's stagnated despite being so further than the rest of the class. If this keeps going on it could lead to stunted growth, bad habits. The kind of bad habits that can get a hero killed._

 _"Not like I can just pull him aside and talk to him about it, either. What would that look like coming from a teacher? That he's doing so good in school it's actually harmful? If I had a reason it'd be different, but outside of his work ethic he's a model student. Friendly with his classmates, top notch grades, and he doesn't even break any disciplinary rules. His only real problem is that he isn't motivated because UA just isn't challenging enough for him. And we can't just push the entire class harder on his behalf alone. We push the others too far and it could do more harm than good."_

The teacher's eyes narrowed on the fight below him. _"The only exception to that observation is this fight right here. Ever since USJ he's had this far-off look in his eyes. Likely on account of the situation with his brother, which in itself is another headache we aren't exactly prepared to deal with. Heroes with family members who are villains are extremely rare, sure, but not unheard of, though I've never heard of any with a jaded past like the Shinkas. I'd personally recommend some sort of counselling, but he hasn't been showing any outwards signs of being disturbed at all by his brother being an infamous villain outside of the day he escaped."_ He frowned behind his bandages. _"Some would say the lack of any signs is in of itself a worrying sign._

 _"But... as a result of USJ, he improved, if slightly. Not because of the villains, but because of his brother. Him losing to his brother motivated Shinka enough to innovate a bit with his Quirk, but eventually this 'inspirational high' will wear off. This fight with Bakugo, who's also one of the most talented students in 1-A, will just speed that up. Like a candle burning out faster due to glowing too intensely. He's improving dramatically in this fight alone, but after this he'll more than likely fall back into his old, unmotivated habits. And unless his brother swings by and beats him again, he won't have much more motivation to improve."_

Not like that was likely to ever happen. They'd gone to great efforts to keep it from the public, but the hero community was downright spooked of Shinka Hikari. A teenager with an exceptionally powerful Quirk was rare, and a teenager with a Quirk of any caliber defeating a hero was even more rare. A teenager freshly out of prison defeating a fully-trained an exceptionally powerful hero who in his own right was the second-best hero was literally unheard of. The fact a villain of that caliber had yet to be caught didn't assuage any fears among heroes, and the fact he was with the League now only made things worse.

The fact that Shinka Kyomu had lasted longer against him than Endeavor had said a few things about the teen. Mainly that Aizawa's fear of his motivation tanking and his growth stagnating was justified.

 _"I've never had to deal with a problem like this before in a student. Statistically speaking a problem like this should never arise. They don't bother teaching us teachers how to handle something like this because nobody in the hero course ever ended up with a problem like this. And the worst part is that Shinka or any of the other students aren't even aware of it. How do you go about fixing a problem you don't know you have? How am I or any of the other teachers suppose to fix it?"_

* * *

The square, concrete fighting ring that had been constructed and constantly repaired throughout the duration of the Sports Festival tournament was about half of its former glory by the end of Kyomu and Bakugo's fight. Whether blown away by Bakugo's Explosion Quirk or just gone from Kyomu's Void, it was less of a ring at this point and more of a large piece flat concrete the two were standing on.

Fifteen minutes the fight had gone on. Bakugo was worse for wear with how exhausted he looked; his gym uniform was absolutely drenched in sweat, and his arms were beginning to twitch due to overuse from his Quirk. He also had multiple scuff marks and small bruises from where Kyomu had occasionally managed to land a hit on him. Kyomu, conversely, still stood without much sign of exhaustion plaguing his form despite the face his uniform was in even more tatters than Bakugo's was.

"You're lookin' pretty tired there, Bakugo," Kyomu noted, his left arm hanging limply at his side. "I guess your limit is that you can't handle to many large explosions yet. Not for this long, at least." He looked down at his limp arm. "But hey, you're still developing. Body-wise, at the very least."

"Oh, shut up already." He crouched low, with more explosions leaving his palms. "You're not looking so hot yourself there."

Kyomu looked down, and then frowned at his ruined gym uniform. "Yeah, you kinda wrecked my clothes," he grumbled. "Wasn't exactly my color, but still. It was free." He looked back up at Bakugo. "What do you think? Got enough for one more?"

"Hah... yeah, sure..." The grin on the blonde's face was practically feral at this point, and the intensity of the explosions ringing out from his palms increased. "It's a big one. My new move, guaranteed to blow you away."

"Mm." Black wisps circled around Kyomu's hands. "Guess we'll see."

Kyomu was the one to strike first with a snap of his fingers. A black portal opened up directly under Bakugo's feet, which, naturally, forced Bakugo to leap upwards to avoid falling to his death. It was a tactic meant to force Bakugo to go in a specific direction- namely, up.

What he didn't expect, however, was Bakugo beginning to spin before Kyomu could enact his next move. One hand was angled in one direction while another was aimed in the exact opposite direction, with explosions constantly blasting out of the palms of each. The result was that he no longer looked like a teenager, but a spiraling mass of explosions. A deadly mass that was shooting right towards Kyomu.

"Howitzer...!" It was an appropriate name, all things considered. The half second that Kyomu had to think about the fact that the thing heading towards him looked like a fiery piece of spiraling heavy ordinance was, in fact, spent in appreciation for the name. "IMPACT!"

As it stood, Kyomu's options were extremely limited. Were it a real fight he was in he would have just opened a portal to Void right in front of Bakugo, making him sail in and therefor killing him. This was a sanctioned fight in front of thousands and televised to millions, however, and not a fight to the death. Bakugo was keenly aware of this, which was why he had chosen to go with a tactic that involved impeded movement straight towards Kyomu with no risk of him pulling a move like that. Kyomu, likewise, was equally aware of this fact.

So he'd tried running left. Why he chose left as opposed to right, the teen had no clue. But the one step he'd taken to try and dodge out of the way had stopped him, as he saw the spinning human ordinance shell coming right towards him adjust ever so slightly to re-center towards Kyomu. In that fraction of a fraction of a second, Kyomu realized that he would not be able to move fast enough to avoid Bakugo. Nor would he be able to drop into a portal to avoid Bakugo, as gravity would prove to be too slow for him to attempt such a stunt at the speed Bakugo was going.

Bakugo, by contrast, was moving just fast enough to pull him out of the way.

Seeing this, Kyomu had opened two portals: one next to him and one right in front of Bakugo. Immediately afterwards Kyomu stuck his right arm through the portal, and by the time it had emerged through the second one Bakugo had already past it. He reached out, grabbing the blonde's ankle and allowing his momentum to pull Kyomu fully through the portal and straight through to the other side, safely hanging on behind Bakugo.

The Explosion user touched down where Kyomu had stood. The explosion upon impact was akin to a tank shell hitting that spot, and the deafening boom and debris flying in every direction only aided in this comparison. It was a explosion so jarring, in fact, that even Bakugo was stunned extremely briefly after his move was finished. Kyomu, on the other hand, was completely fine, both due to the fact he was directly behind Bakugo and shielded by his body, and also thanks to his default sturdiness.

Seeing his opportunity, Kyomu lunged forwards once both teens touched down on the ground. Bakugo, in his explosion-addled state, was only just able to turn back towards Kyomu before a fist landed directly on his face. The force carried behind that fist was enough to launch him backwards exactly two meters, which, generally speaking, wouldn't have been enough to get him out of the ring, but was at this particular moment due to Bakugo's last move having completely destroyed that part of the ring.

He landed on the grass, completely motionless. Kyomu, still standing on the ring, was looking down with his fist still extended forwards and completely frozen as his dark blue eyes trailed Midnight as she ran over to the blonde teen's prone form. Both Kyomu and the crowd watching waited with bated breath as she crouched down to check his vitals, and the breath Kyomu hadn't even realized he was holding was exhaled when he saw a relieving smile come across her as she raised a hand.

"Due to both being KO'd by his opponent and being knocked out of the ring, Bakugo Katsuki loses the match!" she announced. "The winner is Shinka Kyomu!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Kyomu let out a weary smile as he hopped down from the ring and limped his way towards the nearest exit towards the infirmary.

* * *

"Honestly, the lengths kids go through these days..." Kyomu never thought that so much ire could radiate out of one little old lady. His first meeting with Recovery Girl (still a very misleading name in his opinion given her age), which shaking his faith on that belief, was not enough to fully break and and thus he held firm.

The face she was making now, while still not making his lose faith in his ideology on old lady dire, was making him question it. It was a kind of scrunched-up face only an aged human being could make. The kind of face that made them look less like a human being and more like some kind of exotic fruit that was somehow overripe and completely dried at the same time. Some sort of unexplained mass of wrinkle that he couldn't quite make the shape of. It was a face she wore the second he limped in the infirmary, and it was the face she maintained as he'd looked over an unconscious Bakugo that was carried in by a stretched via small robots. Even as she checked Kyomu over, that face remained.

"Y'know I'm fine, doc," Kyomu muttered as the old woman inspected his shirtless torso. His gym uniform- thankfully a new, and more importantly, FREE set courtesy of UA- laid on a small table besides the bed be sat on. "He just rattled me a bit. That's all."

"Ah, I know." Her voice took a fussy tone as she continued to look him over. "You're evidently sturdier than a bull considering you sustained minimal injuries." She turned around to the sleeping teen that rested on a cot right across from Kyomu. "Him, on the other hand, I'll have to give a stern talking to. He could have seriously hurt his arms with how many explosions he was tossing out there."

Kyomu's eyes traveled over to the resting teen. Even asleep, he looked like one of the angriest people on the whole planet. It was likely to be a face that would look even more angry the second he woke up. His attention focused downwards, towards the arms wrapped in bandages. "He'll be fine, though, right?" he asked.

"If he eases off the Quirk a bit, he'll be fine." Recovery Girl waved a hand. "Don't worry none about him, sonny. You gotta save all that worryin' for yourself. Finals, remember?"

Ah, yes. He had made it far enough in the tournament that he'd be fighting for first place. Against Todoroki, of all people, as Kyomu had heard his name be announced as the winner of the fight between him and Tokoyami while he was stuck in this medical room. Mostly to Bakugo's fault, too; he'd had to wait for Recovery Girl to finish looking him over and care for him before she'd even paid him any mind. It was a process that had taken so long he'd missed the second semi-final fight entirely, though he was fairly confident it went with Todoroki freezing Tokoyami on the spot like he usually did.

It wasn't really of much consequence to Kyomu. Bakugo had been the one he'd been most worried about fighting, and he'd even prepared for the event he lost against him. Todoroki, less so, yet still dangerous. Tokoyami would have been ideal.

He was sure he would turn out fine either way.

"Well, seeya." Kyomu slid off of the examination table and grabbed the gym uniform near him. The clothes were quickly slipped on as he made his way to the door. "Good luck with the, eh, nursing, Recovery Girl."

She waved him off and mumbled something under her breath as she passed a cursory glance back over at Bakugo. By that point Kyomu was already out the door, hands tucked into his pockets as he started to walk forwards.

Problem was, this wasn't the standard school infirmary. It was the temporary infirmary room built into the stadium for the occasion of the Sports Festival, and outside of the areas Kyomu had already been in he was wholly unfamiliar with the layout as it was. Were he, at the very least, near the lockers or maybe the food court that would have been one thing, but as it stood he was fairly confident he was at the complete other end of the stadium. Which meant he was effectively lost.

He found himself shrugging. As long as he found his way out by the time his final match started, he wasn't too worried about it. So he began walking down the hallway, completely aimless and alone save for his thoughts to keep him company. Which was unfortunate, because if there was somebody else here they could probably point him in the right direction.

 _"Man, Bakugo was every bit as tough as I thought he'd be. More so, even,"_ he thought. _"Guy's an innate fighting genius, I swear. Doesn't even fit that temper of his- he seems more like the kinda guy that'd rush head-first into things without thinking, but he's the exact opposite. And fighting him was... it was something else."_

The sensation he'd felt wasn't as clear as it was in his mind during the time of his fight, but he could still vaguely remember it. The rush of the fast-paced combat that kept him on his toes. The excitement of there being little to no margin for error, that he had to make quick decisions while fighting so that he wouldn't failed. He'd been pushed. Challenged. It was a sensation he'd barely ever felt in his entire life outside of times with his brother.

 _"It was so strange, that feeling. I really liked it. It was so fun! Nobody else ever... Hikari did, once upon a time. When we'd play games together or even compete to see who'd complete school assignments first. Nobody or nothing besides Hikari was just ever able to keep up with me. But because Bakugo is so good at fighting, he was able to keep up with me. Probably the only thing he_ can _keep up with, really, but still... it's impressive. He really is the real deal."_

And strangely enough, he'd felt almost... exhilarated by the experience. Something fun, but more so. So much so that he almost lamented having ended the fight with Bakugo as quick as he did. It was enough to make him wonder if his coming fight with Todoroki would be just as challenging.

Coincidentally, or perhaps by some twist of fate, the moment thoughts of Todoroki went through Kyomu's mind was the same moment he rounded a corner and ran into a man many times his size in terms of sheer muscle mass. Kyomu had bumped right into his meaty chest and had stayed there for approximately five seconds before he slowly backed off, thinking he'd just walked right into All Might.

He didn't remember All Might's face being on fire.

 _"Oh, wait, it's that guy. The... fire guy. Yeah."_ Kyomu's face scrunched up in confusion as he attempted to mentally identify the man before him, who was staring down at the teen blankly. _"It was Endeavor, right? Yeah, Endeavor. He's Todoroki's dad. Looks like he came in his hero costume like most of the other heroes that came."_ He mentally paused. _"Does he make that stupid fire mustache outside of costume? And if he does what does that say about his character?"_

"Would you mind watching where you walk?" the hero asked, fiery eyebrows furrowing downwards. "It's rude to walk into people like that."

"Sorry about that. I'm a bit lost." Turning his head around the hero revealed a staircase behind him. The teen assumed that going upwards would surely eventually lead to the outside, and he could easily navigate from there. "I should be able to find my way out, though. Not gonna let a little misdirection make me miss my match with Todoroki."

The teal eyes of the otherwise fiery hero narrowed down at Kyomu. "Ah, yes. Shinka." There was a notable twitch in his left, flaming eyebrow. So minute that most people wouldn't have even been able to pick it up had they not been looking. In Kyomu's case, he just happened to have noticed it. "You did well to make it this far. I know a lot of heroes out there have been impressed by the efforts of everybody in the tournament."

Leaning his back to the wall, Kyomu nodded slowly in agreement. "Thanks..." he slowly replied, looking the flame hero up and down. "Your son's been doing well, it seems."

"Shoto's success is only natural." There was something about that statement that had immediately rubbed Kyomu the wrong way. Perhaps it was how fast Endeavor had said it, or just how much confidence was in his voice when he said it. Frankly speaking his whole demeanor was setting Kyomu on edge. "He is my son, after all. It's to be expected. I only hope that when you fight him you'll give him a challenging experience to grow from much like your last fight."

"... Ah-huh. Right." The teen rigidly nodded. "Might be a little hard seeing as he only uses half his power. That fight with Midoriya was the first time I've ever seen him use it."

The corners of Endeavor's mouth turned downwards. "He's already proved his willingness to use that side of him after that match. And that is besides the point. Even if he neglects his fire, his ice should prove more than enough for somebody like you."

It was almost a condescending tone that the large hero had taken while talking. One that Kyomu, while not caring enough to actually be bothered by it, was nonetheless still put off by it if just by the barest amount. Thoughts of just leaving occurred to him, but he was already leaning against the wall and was in no rush.

"If this is about what my brother did..." Kyomu began, though stopped when Endeavor's eyes hardened. "You're just being a bit hostile is all."

He scoffed. "I'm not one to demean myself so much as to insult someone for no other reason than that their sibling is a villain."

"And yet you haven't stopped scowling at me the second we made eye contact," the teen pointed out. "I mean, I guess I'd be mad, too. If some rookie run-of-the-mill villain went and punched out a big, strong, professional hero like you." He shrugged. "If my brother took you out so easy, I don't see why I can't take Todoroki out even easier."

Everything about Kyomu's tone of voice was completely neutral and in no way alone implied any sort of insult. His face was even set in a bored, not especially expressive expression as he looked up at the hero's slowly creasing face. The words themselves said enough, however, and Kyomu knew full well what the implications behind what those words said had meant.

Why he'd chosen to direct the conversation in such a passive-aggressive direction? He didn't rightly know. It was done more on an instant whim than anything else, perhaps to merely pass time, or maybe to try and glean into his classmate's personal life through his father. Either way he was still here, leaning up against a wall with the number two hero scrutinizing him with eyes that miraculously weren't flaring up into flames despite the fact the fire all over the rest of him was slowly increasing in intensity.

"What your _brother_ managed to pull off," Endeavor said while practically hissing the word brother, "was a cheap shot he baited me into."

"Didn't look like that on TV," Kyomu countered.

For the briefest second the flames all around the hero increased in intensity. "It isn't something he would be able to repeat a second time. The outcome would be different if we fought again."

Blue eyes looked up and down Endeavor's body. "Doubtful," he said. "Your Quirk isn't very compatible for him. You're nothing but a walking power source for him with all that bright fire." His eyes stopped examining the hero, and then rolled. "'Sides, he'd take you out even faster the second time."

The flames bristled. "He's an undisciplined brat that's barely into his teens. I'm a seasoned hero with more years of experience than he has life."

"Didn't stop him from grinding your face into a building, now, did it? I mean, geez... he woulda killed _All Might_ back at USJ if I didn't interfere. Granted he was weakened after fighting that Nomu thing, but still. And as I recall, he _did_ fight your son. And utterly wiped the floor with him in a second." Kyomu pushed off the wall and walked past Endeavor, who remained as silent as possible despite the flames now roaring around him. "My victory is a hundred-percent guaranteed. It's just how it is."

He stopped walking when he felt an intense pressure go down on his shoulder. Heated pressure that he could feel past his gym uniform and was almost scorching in its intensity. Kyomu didn't react much to it, however, and instead slowly turned his head behind him to look as the massive, flaming hand that had clamped down onto his shoulder. When he looked up the arm connected to that hand to the fact, he saw Endeavor staring down at him with teal eyes that were almost twitching in anger.

"... Tch. Seems arrogance runs in your family." The hand soon left his shoulder as Endeavor fully turned away from Kyomu and began to walk away. "I hope that's the only thing that run in your blood."

"Didn't realize being correct was a genetic trait." Turning his head back around, Kyomu went the opposite direction as Endeavor. "Your fire beard sucks, by the way."

Whether Endeavor bothered to show any reaction to the jab or not, Kyomu had no idea, as he didn't put the effort of turning around to see in. And maybe that was for the best. For all he knew Endeavor had looked back just to see if Kyomu himself had looked back to check to see if his words had caused any reaction. And where would that leave him looking? Immature? He was fairly certain he'd looked immature there in Endeavor's eyes regardless of what had happened, but at least this way he felt just the littlest bit better about the matter.

In any case, he had a final match to get to. The last thing he wanted to do was pull what Iida had pulled and get automatically disqualified.

"Now where the hell am I supposed to go?"

* * *

Through no small amount of effort, he'd found his way out of what was practically a labyrinth. The crowds around them were, of course, louder than ever. For the final fight in the whole Sports Event, it should have implied that this one would be the most spectacular fight yet. That was the whole meaning of the bracket system, after all. To make sure the best was saved for last.

Kyomu wasn't so sure that was true in this case, but he was willing to give his classmate the benefit of the doubt.

Todoroki stood on the other side of the concrete ring as their names were announced once more to the crowd, his face blank as he stared across at the dark-haired teen. His eyes would occasionally flick up to where his father was sitting in the stands. Kyomu's would flick up to his class's seats, where everybody was staring down at them with held breaths. Even Bakugo, who looked just angry enough to blow the whole stadium up, though the anger seemed to to be reigned in enough for him to watch the match.

An air horn was blown, announcing the start of the final match. Kyomu wasted no time in sighing and taking a single step forwards.

"Todoroki, I don't know what the whole deal with you and your dad and the whole fire thing is," he said. "Frankly, I don't care. Maybe what Midoriya said to you during the match with him got to you, maybe not, I dunno. Just... maybe put all that aside for, like, five minutes? If not for my sake than for the crowd's."

He didn't react to the words for the first few moments. He then slowly looked down at his left hand, flexing it a couple of times before his eyes slid up to Kyomu. "You've never expressed concern for me before," he noted. "What changed now?"

"Ah, you wound me. Really." Hands clutched at the spot where Kyomu's heart laid. "I care for the well-being of all my classmates, Todoroki. You know that. You have no idea how mad I got over Midoriya when I saw him break his hand fighting you. Repeatedly. I'm gonna lay into him for that when I get a free moment with him."

"Is that so?" The heterochromic teen's hand fell to his side. The faintest ghost of a smile played over his lips before they turned back into a thin line. "Sorry about that. I have a lot of thoughts I'm sorting through thanks to him."

"Understandable. So, about that fire. Gonna use it?"

Frost and ice particulates began to grow and shift around the right side of Todoroki's body. He looked to his left once more, a conflicted look on his face before he shook his head. "I'm not so sure," he said. "I'm afraid... that's the best answer I can give at the moment, Shinka."

"Hey, that's your choice." Kyomu rose his arms in a hapless shrug, black wisps coalescing around both. "It's the wrong choice, but more power to me I gue-"

The wall of ice crashing into him ensured that he wasn't able to finish that sentence.

* * *

It was amazing how good ice was at blocking sound. Maybe that was because of how thick it was. Whatever the case, there was so much between him and the outside world that he could barely hear the screeching crowds outside.

What had happened was simple. Todoroki had created ice around Kyomu much the same way he'd done Sen. Unlike Sen, Kyomu had Void, and was able to shield himself from being frozen in place. By the time the assault ended and he'd dismissed the Void portal he was left laying on his back in a spherical hollow inside what basically amounted to a giant chunk of ice. A hollow bathed in a soft blue from the sunlight filtering in through the ice and one that was quite quiet.

It was a good time for reflection, Kyomu had decided while laying there completely motionless while just staring blankly upwards. Reflection on what he'd actually expected on what would happen and what he should do next. Win the match, of course, but how to go about it? Truth was he had multiple ways of doing it. But how to go about it? Quick and humiliating? Draw it out into a spectacle like he'd done with Bakugo? He wasn't so sure. With Bakugo, it had been legitimate. If he held back just to make a good show with Todoroki, would he notice and be insulted? Probably. And Kyomu wasn't sure he wanted that kind of animosity geared towards him.

Quickly was certainly a way. He could make it so quick and effortless on his part that it would almost look embarrassing on Todoroki's, especially if he kept fighting with just his ice. Might even anger his father a bit, who Kyomu knew already had a disliking towards him after their little conversation. Considering he never planned on seeing the man ever again, it didn't matter all too much, but a victory was a victory no matter how small or petty. And maybe Todoroki would surprise him and give him some fun like Bakugo.

Eh. Doubtful, but he could hope.

"Why's he always gotta start a fight by tossin' an iceberg at a guy?" Kyomu mused, raising up a single arm as Void roiled down his arm. "So annoying."

What followed next was a large torrent of Void extended from Kyomu's arm and went right through the ice. The ever-shifting pillar of darkness more thick than a large bus slowly cut up and down the ice, effortlessly making a passageway out from the ice. It soon disappeared once the pathway was made, with Kyomu slowly walking out completely unfazed and unmarked save for the light amount of frost quickly melting off his clothes.

"You really gotta vary your opening attacks up, Todoroki!" he called, spreading his arms wide as he walked towards his opponent. The heterochromatic teen didn't show much reaction, though his brows did seem to furrow when Kyomu walked out from the ice unharmed. "Saw that comin' a mile away. It's like you always go with that first or something."

Todoroki whipped his right arm upwards. Ice started to extend from the ground in front of him and rush right towards Kyomu, whose arms had fallen to his side as his eyes rolled in a dramatic fashion. A quick snap of his fingers and a black portal opened up in the ice's path, completely swallowing it as it entered.

"Really?" Kyomu's ears perked up when he heard the sound of more rushing ice, coming from both his right and left. "Lettin' me down here."

More and more sheets of ice collided into Kyomu, who opened more and more portals to swallow them all up. It was so much that his form was obscured from Todoroki's view from both the icy mist permeating the air around him and the portals blocking his view. Even more ice began to gather around his arm something cracked against the back of his head. He gasped out loud as he was sent tumbling back, though quickly spun around on his feet and turned around.

"What part of 'my unstable portals scramble and scatter all matter to Void' don't you understand?" Behind him stood Kyomu, stepping out of a freshly-made portal that closed behind him. The look on his face had no hint of urgency whatsoever despite the situation. "What the hell do you think ice is made of, hopes and dreams?"

Todoroki's only response was to let even more ice grow down the right side of his body only for it to quickly rush towards Kyomu.

 _"He's either running out of ideas really fast here or he think he can get me at a closer range like this."_ More blackness began to run up Kyomu's arms. _"Either way it's just so... uninspired."_

The black wisps coiled and condensed around his arms until they'd solidified into black sleeves that completely covered his arms and hands that ended in sharpened fingers. Black sleeves that were constantly in a state of movement, shifting and roiling in place but remained right over Kyomu's arms as he moved them. Todoroki's eyes had widened while Kyomu's remained half-lidded as he swiped a blackened arm over the ice approaching him, with any ice touching the blackness completely disappearing. When more ice attempted to ensnare him, he simply continued to swipe the ice away until Todoroki ended his assault.

It was a simple enough concept. He could bend his portals all he wanted, so why not just wrap them around his hands? In this case, the unstable variety. The effect was making gloves that disintegrated anything they touched. Good for situations like this when somebody kept on throwing useless junk at him.

"You made... gauntlets?" Todoroki asked in an uncertain tone, his eyes trained on Kyomu's arms.

The other teen shrugged. "I mean, they're more like gloves, but whatever." He looked down at his arms. "Hey, wanna help me come up with a name for these? I'm kinda stumped here."

Two mismatched eyes narrowed. "Take this seriously." More ice began spreading down his right side. "This is a fight. You're supposed-"

"In my defense you're not givin' me a lot to work with here." A blackened hand clamped down just above the fabric covering Todoroki's own arm, whose eyes had quickly shifted from the spot Kyomu had just been standing to the spot besides him. The ice on his arm refused to grow outwards, and instead was consumed by the blackness surrounding Kyomu's arm. "I took this seriously with Bakugo because he gave me a reason to be serious. You, though? You're just throwing ice at me over and over even though it's doing nothing to actually stop me. So either get your act together or get out of the ring."

He kicked the other teen away, the sleeve of his gym uniform disappearing as he slid backwards. Ice gathered below his feet and lifted him upwards, at which point Todoroki began to surf the ice around Kyomu.

"Disappointing." More ice that rushed towards the black-haired teen was lost to Void as portal after portal opened in their way. "Running around me with ice isn't going to help you."

A black portal opened directly behind Todoroki, segmenting the piece of ice he had been riding on and causing him to fall down to the ring floor. He landed in a roll, pressing his right hand on the ground and causing more ice to grow on the ground around him and rise up. Kyomu only scoffed and walked towards the wall of ice encapsulating Todoroki, more Void encircling his arms.

One swipe of his hand caused the momentary appearance of a large, black gash that carved away a significant portion of the ice that let him continue moving forwards. Again and again he would erase the ice and continue forwards, until seconds later he burst through the final layer of ice into the inner hollow of the small ice fortress.

The empty hollow that had a small hole near the back.

Almost automatically, Kyomu's body leaned to the left side upon seeing the empty hollow and hole. Ice shot past his form just as he dodged, prompting him to whirl around on his attack who stood directly behind him. Todoroki had barely any time to widen his eyes before a portal appeared right in front of his face, only for a pale fist to shoot out of it and directly impact his chin.

His body flew backwards and hit the concrete, flat on his back. His head had briefly risen upwards, eyes unfocused and looking directly at Kyomu, though it soon fell back down and all motion ceased soon after. A quick inspection from Midnight seconds later revealed he had been knocked unconscious.

The thunderous applause afterwards was deafening, though to Kyomu it was hardly heard. He'd merely just leaned back on the nearest slab of ice to let an airy breath out as the final match ended, and he was proclaimed the winner of the Sports Festival.

* * *

The sound of his locker door slamming shut was a bit louder than by normal acceptable standards. Mostly because Kyomu was quick to get out of that gym uniform and into his usual, darkly colored clothing. He'd had enough of that thing for one day, and enough of the Sports Festival to last him a whole year. Likely why it was only held once a year.

He sighed, leaning back against the lockers. A small, gold medal was clenched in his left hand, which he briefly lifted up to look at before he let a breath out and lowered his hand back to his side.

It'd been a rather funny ceremony.

* * *

 _"And to you, young Shinka, goes the medal for first place." Considering he worked at UA now, getting All Might to dole out the top three medals for the finalists wasn't the biggest stretch in the world. They practically saw him every single day, after all, but that was their class out of the rest of the world. So he'd still caused quite a commotion when he'd come flying in over the stadium's top, interrupting Midnight's introductory speech by accident. It had been enough for Kyomu to exhale a small amount of air from his nose that was a larger amount than usual. "You fought hard and earned this well. You're a shining example to your whole class, and indeed all of UA! Hah-ha!"_

 _He gingerly took the gold medal offered to him by All Might, his eyes going to his left and right. Todoroki, holding his silver medal, had a far look in his eyes. Not from the loss, but from... whatever it was that had happened between him and Midoriya. An unfocused look that had kept him from his best ever since that fight. Even after winning against him Kyomu still had no idea what it was that was wrong with him. And perhaps it wasn't any of his business. He was still curious, though._

 _And then there was Bakugo, who was aggressively biting his bronze medal with the most hostile look on his face Kyomu had seen yet. The muzzle they'd put on him laid at his feet, All Might having taken it off just to get the medal on him. The same kind of muzzle_ _they gave dangerous mental patients. Kyomu didn't want to think about why UA just had one of those lying around. He especially didn't want to think about the fact that he could have sworn he saw Midnight's signature hidden on the inside as it fell away._

 _There were a lot of implications there he would have rather ignored._

 _"Thanks, All Might." Testing the weight, Kyomu tossed the medal up and down in his hand, and then frowned. It felt lighter than gold ought to have weighed. "This is just painted gold, isn't it?" he asked with a flat face._

 _A single, large drop of sweat appeared on the side of All Might's face. "These events are always really expensive for the school, you know? We needed to cut budgets somewhere."_

 _With a blank expression, Kyomu pointed a thumb behind him. "You're telling me that UA has enough money to build and maintain entire small, empty cities in the woods they own for training purposes but they couldn't have splurged on a real gold medal?"_

 _"I... I don't handle the school's money, young Shinka."_

 _"Seems fair," Kyomu intoned with a roll of his eyes. He put on the medal nevertheless, if only to maintain appearances. He refused to smile, though, which seemed to be a standard for all the winners. His blank face, Todoroki's far away face, and Bakugo's screaming face. It was sure to make some good internet joke material for a day or four._

* * *

It'd been worth winning overall if just for the small amount of amusement he'd gleaned from that event.

"Couldn't have even asked somebody with the appropriate Quirk to make it gold?" Kyomu muttered under his breath as he rolled the medal in his hand. "You can't tell me there isn't somebody out there that can do that. That'd be the tamest Quirk in the world compared to all the other stuff I've seen so far." A thought came to him. "Hell, Yaoyorozu could have just made one for me. Maybe if I ask her, she'll give me one. She's pretty chill when it comes to that kind of thing."

Cheaply-made medal aside, he'd yet to sort through his feelings of actually winning the Sports Festival, which in itself was surprising considering he had very few on the matter. Overall, it'd been... fun? He wanted to say fun, but the only real challenge he'd had was with Bakugo. Maybe some enjoyment from watching the other fights along with his friends. He supposed he should have felt accomplished with himself- frankly, he didn't. But if anybody asked, he would say he did. And after a week when the feeling wore off everybody would stop talking about it until it rolled around next year. And maybe at that time everybody would grow stronger and give him more of a challenge.

One could hope.

"That thing seriously not made of gold?" The voice he heard caused Kyomu to jump and turn around it had been so surprising. His own mirror image was leaning against the lockers, smiling over at him. "And here I thought the school didn't cut corners anywhere. Just goes to show."

"... Hey, bro." Kyomu cautiously lowered himself into his default stature, hanging the medal around his neck. "You been there long?"

Hikari chuckled, blinking his crimson eyes. The fact that it actually was his brother standing there with no warning at all was still jarring to Kyomu. The fact he was acting so casual when surrounded by so many heroes above them even more so. "Oh, I saw the whole even. What, you didn't think I was gonna miss my brother compete, now, did you?" His mouth twisted into a grin. "Come on. Who do you think I am?"

"Good point." The Void user looked up. "How'd you even sneak into this place? There's heroes everywhere."

"... I can turn invisible."

"Yeah, alright, I get it, you got the cool power." Rolling his eyes, Kyomu crossed his arms. "I appreciate it, I guess. You've been doing well, right?"

"Eh, surviving." Hikari gave a shrug. "We'll have to, uh, you know, leave my current life proceedings there. 'Cause, you know..."

An uncomfortable silence passed between the two, which they both understood immediately. One was a villain who couldn't exactly talk about villain proceedings to a up and coming hero. One who, admittedly, was the only student in all of UA would not report said proceedings to anybody out of obligation, but they both had no desire to hear any of it. Talking brother-to-brother was a much better experience than hero-to-villain.

"Anyways..." The white-haired teen pushed off of the lockers, a light grin on his face. "You've gotten pretty good, brother. I told you all you needed was some practice." He patted his brother on the shoulder. "Nice going."

Kyomu blinked. "Oh, uh, thanks. I-"

The locker room's door opening caused the black-haired teen to jump and whirl around. The blonde head of hair poking into the room only caused his heart rate to accelerate, and when Bakugo's eyes shifted over to him he only began to panic more.

"Oh, Bakugo, hey!" Internal curses about how he hadn't been watching the door went through Kyomu's mind. Solutions of how to solve this problem, not any of them good, also briefly flashed past him. "I-I can explain."

"... Explain what?" he asked, frowning over in Kyomu's direction.

It was a question that caused the teen to pause in confusion, and for him to turn around to point out his brother. What he found was an empty spot where his brother had been standing. A sweet sigh of relief escaped him as Bakugo skulked past him towards his own locker, bronze medal clutched in his hand.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." Kyomu waved a hand to the side as Bakugo opened his locker. "So congrats on third. I guess."

"Shut it." He didn't even so much as turn his head to address the darker-haired teen, and was instead content with sticking his head into his locker as he gathered his things. "It's not first, so it doesn't mean shit."

"I mean, that's not true. Everybody saw you fighting out there, and I'm sure loads of heroes were impressed." More rummaging on Bakugo's part, followed by Kyomu looking from left to right as he tried to think about what to say. "If it's any consolation, you were a way better fight than Todoroki was," he said. "You should have been the one to get second place. Only reason you didn't was because of the bracket placement. Maybe if you asked Todoroki he'd swap medals with-"

"World saw me getting third place, so it doesn't matter. I couldn't care less about the medals." He slammed the locker shut with enough force the lockers besides it rattled. He turned around, harsh eyes falling on Kyomu as he huffed and slammed his own back against the lockers.

Kyomu momentarily felt sorry for the lockers and the abuse they'd been suffering as of late.

"Besides, I'm not at all surprised Icy Hot gave a flaccid performance," he huffed. "With all the shit rattling through his head, it's a no-brainer. Still not an excuse for him to have not used his fire."

"What exactly his wrong with him?" Kyomu questioned. "I ran into his father, and he seemed like a... certain kind of guy. He have a bad home life or something?"

Bakugo shifted positions on the locker and looked down. The kind of dismissal look he often gave when he didn't want to discuss something- which was rather often. "Ask him yourself if you care so much."

It was a fair enough response. And truthfully, while Kyomu did have some small interest, it wasn't enough to make him pry. Maybe he'd ask Todoroki, but that was the extent he was willing to go in that matter.

But the silence continued between the two of them after that, with Kyomu rolling back and forwards on his feet while Bakugo continued to steam silently to kind of silence that was extremely unhealthy for peers, but also the kind where nothing could be said to resolve it. Bakugo, quite simply, was frustrated at Kyomu's success, that much had been made obvious. It was a feeling Kyomu understood completely, but still didn't like to acknowledge. The words he'd said during their fight still resonated within him- ones that brought back unpleasant memories. Words that he'd least of all expected Bakugo of all people to say considering how advanced he was compared to the rest of the class.

Thoughts of possibly saying something to resolve the matter flashed through Kyomu's head, and following these thoughts were all the thoughts detailing the ways it could go wrong. Tell him? Don't tell him? The pros and cons of each decision flashed through his head, and the internal conflict he was waging within himself was made evident in the minute facial expressions he made while his body continued to rock back and forth.

 _"Eh, screw it,"_ he finally decided. _"Can't really make it much worse anyways."_

"You know, that thing you said during our fight..." Kyomu said, braking the silence. "That thing about... succeeding without putting effort it. You aren't exactly wrong; I haven't been... trying, really, but I've still been succeeding. It's always been like it. Most of my peers from my previous schooling year, they, well, resented that about me."

Bakugo didn't say anything, but he made no gesture or sound to stop him from speaking, either. Kyomu took this as a sign to continue.

"UA was different. Everybody just treated me normally. So I tried my best to preserve that. I befriended everybody, or at least got on a good standing with them, and kept my success to myself whenever I could and avoided showing off. Didn't help so much during whenever we did something practical as a whole class, but even then nobody ever treated me with animosity over it. Just respect. Respect I didn't exactly want or need, but it was so much better than what I had before that I took it." He rubbed the back of his head. "Then you went and brought it all back with those words you said. And in your defense, you managed to back those words up with action. I've never worked harder in my entire life than when I was fighting you, geez."

"... Yeah, well, you could be way worse," the blonde finally admitted. "You still piss me off, though."

Kyomu sighed. "It's not even my fault. It's..." He cut himself off, and then looked down at his hands. He sighed. "My mother was a hero," he said, causing Bakugo to look up. "Her hero name was GACT. Ever heard of her?"

He shook his head. "I'm not some damn hero nerd like Deku is," he grumbled. "And what the hell kind of name is GACT?"

"Her Quirk, Genetic Hardening, temporarily strengthened the bodies of heroes she chose to buff. So she kept the theme, took the English letters use to label the molecules in DNA, ACGT, and just kinda, y'know, switched them around to make a word." He paused, and then frowned. "She was a big Gackt fan, too."

Kyomu had many pleasant memories of his mother. The music that would often pour out of her car's speakers (and often from his parents room in his old house) was not one of them.

"Anyways, her Quirk did weird things to me and my brother's genetic makeup, and boom we were born smarter and stronger than average," the black-haired teen finished. "So if you wanna know why I do so good and how my brother's able to push big-league heroes around, well, there you go. No super secret training regime or anything like that. Just a happy genetic accident. I'm strong because I just... am. I never really had much of a choice."

All Bakugo did was silently stare at him, which alone may have been disconcerting, but it wasn't the usual look of contempt Bakugo generally gave everything he looked at. It was a piercing, calculating look that actually managed to put Kyomu on edge from how intense the stare was.

"I-I haven't really, uh, told the rest of the class. Not even Sen," Kyomu admitted. "Only person I have told is All Might, so I guess the rest of the staff might know if he told them. And even then, it was diagnosed at a hospital. There's records. If anybody wanted to they could probably find out by digging far enough. Not that it's a big secret or anything, I just... I just didn't think it mattered or that anybody would ever care. Only reason I'm telling you is because you're all mad and... I just wanted you to understand."

What followed from Bakugo was a scoff, followed by him turning his head. Kyomu's own head was hung after that, his worst suspicions having been realized followed by the regret he felt at having told the truth. He would have been ready to leave it there and walk out of the room, but then Bakugo chose to open his mouth.

"What the hell does it matter? Who cares?"

The small flickers of hope began to bloom in Kyomu as he turned back to Bakugo. The usual anger and fire returned to him as he detached from the lockers, stomping towards Kyomu while his voice began to increase in several octaves per syllable spoken.

"So what if you were born 'better' than everyone? That doesn't mean anything. People whose Quirks were bred, people who were born strong because of Quirks, doesn't matter!" His face got close enough to Kyomu's that he could smell Bakugo's huffing breath. He was pleased to find that, at the very least, Bakugo kept up with dental hygiene based on the smell. "I'm gonna surpass you all and become the number one hero, you hear me!? You being born better than everyone just means you're a bigger stepping stone for me! So bring out your worst, Void Boy, because I'm gonna surpass you no matter how far you are!"

"... Heh. Heh heh." Relief began to flood into Kyomu, with a small smile stretching across his face as he stepped back from Bakugo. "There's the hothead I know best." His blue eyes darted away from blazing crimson eyes, and he took a step back. "Uh... thanks. You know. For not holding it against me."

Bakugo blinked, and then jerked his head sideways. "Yeah, well, you don't lord that whole 'genetic superiority' thing over everybody. So I guess that makes you pretty okay." He stomped past Kyomu's side towards the locker room door. Kyomu followed. "Just 'cause I tolerate you doesn't mean I'm gonna hold back in surpassing you. And that includes your brother, too- once I'm a hero I'm gonna take down the villain who defeated the number two hero to get to the top."

"Oh, I don't think so," Kyomu said. "I already called dibs on him, Bakugo. He's mine and mine alone."

"Far as I'm concerned, he's a villain, so he's free game for any hero," the blonde argued. "You want him, you'll have to beat me to him."

He could have argued the matter further, but he chose not to. Kyomu had chosen to just leave the matter there with both of them smiling; Kyomu in relief and Bakugo with that competitive grin he oh-so-rarely wore. They split off at the door to the locker room, both going to their own homes.

The only thing left for Kyomu to lament was the flood of orphan children that would crash into him the second he entered his own home.


	19. Chapter 19

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 19- Internship blues**

* * *

Hikari's stance on alcohol was firm; he didn't drink it, nor would he ever drink it.

This rule was set for a multitude of reasons: he was underage, first and foremost. Having actual, caring parents followed by life in prison also limited his potential exposure to the substance to zero. Exposure to alcohol had increased upon taking up residence in the League of Villain's HQ, which happened to be a bar, though even then he refused to partake both due to the values set upon him by his parents at a young age, and because he didn't want to drink liquid that likely tasted as bad as it smelled.

And if he was being honest with himself, he wasn't even sure if it could affect him that much due to his body. It was a mystery that would forever remain unsolved since he refused to drink, even though Shigaraki sometimes offered him one. And even then his light-haired leader barely ever touched the substance, instead preferring to get his escape off video games.

Besides. He had too many problems and issues to run away from as it was. He didn't need to risk making any more.

Unfortunately, there was little else to do in a bar besides drink, especially since the only other resident was Kurogiri who, from Hikari's perspective, seemed to be in a perpetual state of cleaning various glasses and bottles whenever he wasn't warping things around with his Quirk for the League. Fortunately enough, he could be quite the talker once he got going. Much of Hikari's time with the League had often been spent carefully stacking glasses and cups into meticulously-constructed castles as he conversed with Kurogiri on a number of topics. Amazingly enough, despite doing this for so long he had yet to learn a single thing about the man's personal life, which, for all he knew, was for the best.

Today's topic was on Hikari's extremely justified concerned about Shigaraki's desire to bring a serial murderer into the fold.

"I just don't think it's a good idea." Carefully, Hikari placed the thirtieth glass on top of the already impressive glass tower on the bar counter. His crimson eyes repeatedly flickered from the tower to Kurogiri's misty form, whose solid, glowing yellow eyes were locked on his own. "This whole Stain thing. The pickings are slim, I get it, but... really, Stain?"

Stain. Somebody the news had dubbed the Hero-Killer, on account of the fact he exclusively killed professional heroes. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew why he did what he did. How he was doing it was even up to debate. All anybody knew was that hero bodies were showing up cut up more and more each week, and that the very few images nearby street cameras managed to pin the same masked person almost every time. A man dressed in red strapped from head to toe in bladed weaponry.

Shigaraki thought he was perfect League material. Hikari disagreed.

"Have you brought up your concerns with Shigaraki?" Kurogiri questioned as he reached for another glass. "It's important to voice these kinds of things."

"You honestly think he would listen to me enough to talk him out of this?" the teen asked in an incredulous tone. "If he wants something, he's gonna get it. Don't think anybody can talk him out of doing this. He's childish like that."

"Young Shigaraki is... indeed young," the older man agreed. "Our benefactor and leader realizes this as well as I do. If I am to be completely truthful with you, Shinka... he shares your sentiment that recruiting the Hero-Killer is a mistake."

Another glass was added to the tower. "But he's letting it happen anyways."

"It's a learning experience. The only way for Shigaraki to grow in his eyes is for him to stumble again and again, and to learn from these failures in order to improve himself. And, despite being Shigaraki's master and our benefactor, it is Shigaraki who is the League's leader, not that... man. His word is what we are to go on."

"Even if we don't agree with it."

"We are his to use in pursuit of his and our ideals, nothing more. His growth is entirely dependent on him, and the only one he will allow to guide him is his master."

"Ah-huh." Satisfied with his tower, Hikari began to disassemble it. "And what do you think about Stain?"

The yellow eyes looked down to the floor for a moment, and then rose back up to Hikari's level. "I think our ranks need bolstering, and that the Hero-Killer is as good a place as any to start. Why are you so apprehensive about this?"

The Light user's answer was instant. "Stain's an unknown. We don't know why he's doing what he's doing, and we don't know if he would agree to joining us." The last glass in the tower was set back to its proper place on the bar by Hikari's hands. "Maybe he would prefer to work alone. Maybe he hates villains as much as heroes. Shigaraki's making a lot of assumptions here and I think it could turn out really badly if we're not careful."

"Oh? Is that so?"

The voice that spoke out was not Kurogiri's own voice, though it did manage to make the mist man stiffen immediately in his glass cleaning. It was a deep voice, though not nearly as deep nor as distorted as Kurogiri's own voice was due to his body. This voice was completely clear and calm, with just the barest hints of playfulness behind it. It didn't make it sound any less sinister for no other reason than the clear undertones of _power_ that was behind that voice, even if it was filtered in through a static-filled TV monitor.

The voice of Shigaraki's master. Sensei. Somebody who evidently had enough influence to make somebody as calm and collected as Kurogiri freeze up immediately when he started to speak.

Naturally, Hikari spun around in his seat to face the TV monitor while spreading his arms wide.

"The man behind the screen at last. Hey, Sensei." The teen hopped off his bar stool and slowly walked to the front of the TV. A wispy, black tendril in the shape of an arm reached out to him from Kurogiri's side, but then retracted once he'd already walked a fair distance away. "Far as I know, we've never actually talked in person. Usually you only speak with Shigaraki."

There was a chuckle from behind the screen. "You'll have to forgive me for that. I try to limit my exposure to his comrades as much as possible as to not influence them in any way that would detract from Shigaraki's growth. Speaking of which, I presume he's off somewhere?"

"Off in his room playing a game or something most likely," Hikari answered. "Why? Should I go get him?"

"No, no. That's perfectly alright. It may be fortunate that we've happened upon each other like this." There was a pause as the static on the screen continued to flicker. "You have disagreements with Shigaraki's plan?"

"It's not like we don't see eye to eye or anything serious like that." The teen came to a full stop in front of the screen, arms crossed and eyes trained on the screen. He didn't even know if the other person on the other side of the screen could see him or not, whether through some camera or some Quirk. He didn't even know what Sensei's Quirk was to begin with. "I just don't think messing around with this Stain guy is such a great idea. That's all."

"Maybe not." The tone his voice had taken was the same one would adopt after giving a dismissive shrug. "Whether this venture of his will be a success or a failure, either way it will prove to be an invaluable learning experience for young Shigaraki."

Hikari rolled his eyes. "So everybody keeps saying," he muttered.

"This _is_ all for Shigaraki. Both him and his League," the screen reminded. "And you're a very important part of Shigaraki's League of Villains, Shinka Hikari."

It was a surprising enough statement that the teen had faltered in his otherwise nonchalant stance, with his feet shuffling a bit under him. Not only in what that words in that statement implied, but in the genuine sincerity that was in the voice speaking to him. It was the last kind of thing Hikari expected of a man in his position- which, now that he thought about it, he didn't even know what Sensei's position was.

"Loyalty in an organization's members is just as important as said organization's strength, whether it be through those members' personal abilities or raw numbers. Shigaraki has tried the latter with common, two-bit thugs who saw nothing more than a cheap shot at some heroes for an easy paycheck. Dregs of villain society one could pick up in a heartbeat. Already he seeks out stronger members that won't fail him quite as easily. Members like that, however, can not be bought on the dime. Strong members like that are only drawn to either a leader with strong charisma, power, or one who has a strong enough ideal for them to follow. Shigaraki's League, with its current strength, is nowhere near enough to naturally draw the people Shigaraki intends to recruit. And his charisma... well, you know him. It leaves something to be desired." There was a small chuckle at the other end of the screen. "That leaves a strong ideal, which, unfortunately, he also lacks. It is my hope that his encounter with the Hero-Killer Stain will give him insight into this matter, and have him adjust accordingly. Until then, he has you."

Crimson eyes rolled back towards Kurogiri. "I mean, we have old Kuro back there, too. Not fair if I get all the limelight in the minion department."

"Kurogiri's affiliation to Shigaraki and his League was a gift on my part, as well as his own... special circumstances, which, I'm afraid to say, is too private for me to divulge. So far everything that belongs to the League has been given freely to Shigaraki. All but you, who he recruited of his own volition."

"To be fair, I just kinda stumbled into this bar," Hikari noted. "He didn't exactly seek me out or anything."

The screen laughed. "Luck played a large part in it, true enough. Nevertheless, here you are among his ranks. Why is that?"

Why was he here? The question Hikari contemplated almost every day he spent bored out of his mind in a bar, and the question that got answered every single time he looked at the TV and saw All Might on the news. Or went somewhere and saw an All Might plushie, or a poster, a mug, pencil eraser, _anything_ with that man's face on it. What he helped create, and what that creation had done to both the lives of him and his brother.

 _"He's my brother... he doesn't deserve any of this. It's my responsibility to fix it all."_

"I don't like the way the hero society works. Killing All Might is a viable and, from my point of view, only realistic approach to changing it," Hikari answered. "Shigaraki convinced me of this, and our goals are the same. That's all there is to it."

"Exactly the point," Sensei said with what sounded like a smiling voice. "Shigaraki has the potential to draw others to his side. He just needs the right pushes and nudges to guide him towards these answers, such as when you fell into his lap, and hopefully after he encounters Stain. Until then, though... he has you. He talks about you a lot, you know."

A white eyebrow rose in surprise. "He does?"

"He would never admit it, but whenever we talk in private he'll go on and on about you. Why, half of our conversations are about how much he appreciates having you in the League and how fortunate it was he happened upon you."

That could have meant a lot of things. For as long as Hikari had known Shigaraki, he hadn't been one to talk much about things he actually liked. Video games and his master were about the only things that came to mind. Mutterings about the League made it to that roster on rare occasions. He was usually more passionate about talking about the things he hated (All Might), various ways he wanted to destroy the hero society (and All Might), and how he would like to kill heroes (namely All Might) in order to help destabilize the hero society. And like Hikari, that hatred only burned hotter when he looked out a window and saw All Might's face hung up somewhere. Unlike Hikari, who knew why he disliked the hero society so much, he had no clue why Shigaraki detested it so much. He seemed to hate it for no other reason than he hated it.

So what did that mean for Hikari, who seemed to make the very exclusive list of things Shigaraki liked? A friend who could emphasize with him because he was in dire straights due to the hero society? Possible; Shigaraki didn't really have much in the way of friends unless he only maintained the professional relationship with Kurogiri to keep up appearances and had a cabal of online buddies. Or was he just a powerful piece for him to use that was irreplaceable in its uniqueness and strength? Like some extremely rare character in one of Shigaraki's mobile games?

One thing was for certain. He knew too many of Shigaraki's gaming habits due to his close proximity to him.

"I'm flattered." It was the best and most neutral response Hikari could come up with. One that could be played off as a sarcastic remark without having any animosity behind it. Because in reality, Hikari just didn't know how to feel about Shigaraki liking him so much. It might be easier if the the League leader actually talked to him more than occasionally.

"As you should be," the TV continued. "Strong, loyal comrades are hard to come by. It is my hope that Shigaraki will learn from having someone like you under him so he will be better able to handle other unique recruits and keep them all together in the League. And a leader always needs somebody to confide in... a right hand man, so to speak. Someone strong. Loyal. I hadn't anticipated that Shigaraki would happen upon such a candidate for a long while, but seeing as you're here, it's my hope that you will be able to fill such a role. In time, of course."

"... I'll do my best?" Another neutral response that had no real substance or meaning to it. A generic response that really only served to indicate he was following the conversation and allowing it to move forwards without providing any actual input into the subject. He didn't exactly know what to make of it all.

"That's all I ask. I'll be taking my leave, now; important business to attend. Remember that I have high hopes and expectations for both you and Shigaraki." The TV cut out immediately after this. All that was left was a black screen, reflecting Hikari's reflection back at him.

He wore an expression he himself couldn't rightly place a name to.

* * *

"All the attention was the worst, man. Every single person, I swear, they were all 'ooh, you're were the winner of the Sports Festival for the first years! You'll make a fantastic hero one day!' and 'wow, you were super impressive!' and 'your parents must be so proud!'. Dunno how I'm supposed to react to that last one."

There was a nervous swallow besides him from the shorter teen. "I'm... that's really unfortunate." Hands, one noticeably crooked compared to the other, nervously tugged on the owner's shirt collar. "Hearing that from somebody, I mean. N-not that what happened isn't unfortunate either! I, uh, I just-"

"It's fine, Mido, it's fine." Kyomu waved his off while turning his head to the side. "I'd be a lost cause at this point if I didn't grow entirely numb to that kinda stuff. And it's not like they knew."

Kyomu's walk to class was usually a simple enough ritual. Always go a bit early before anyone else, and maybe he'd once in awhile run into Sen along the way and they would talk while leaving the train station. Those kinds of rituals change when it started pouring rain outside after his first train stop, at which point Kyomu decided to use portals to get to school even faster to avoid getting wet, as he lacked anything in the way of an umbrella. Or even a cheap poncho. The downside of this was that he arrived even earlier than usual. On the upside he discovered Midoriya was an even earlier arrival than he was when he'd run into him in the locker room.

So they decided to walk to class together. Midoriya seemed happy enough about it- he enjoyed company. Kyomu didn't have much of a reason to say no to walking together.

"But I know what you mean," the dark green-haired teen agreed. "People keep congratulating me on my performance, too, even though I only made it to my second match in the finals."

"Yeah, and you only needed to permanently bust your hand up to make it that far." Kyomu's head snapped down to Midoriya's side, eyes trained on the scar-riddled hand he kept at his side. "I can't believe you," he admonished. "You just... the hell did I say before the Sports Festival started? Now your hand's all messed up, and for what?"

It was deeply frustrating to the black-haired teen, especially after having conversed to Midoriya about it. It made him feel like his words were wasted. And even more so, it made him feel terrible about himself for having seen something like this coming and not being able to have prevented it despite his effort to the contrary. In the end, he didn't know who he was more angry at: himself or Midoriya.

"It's... it's not like it's that big a deal, Shinka." He rubbed at his damaged hand with a sigh. "It's just a bit harder to move, that's all. I can still use it just fine. And after awhile I'll get used to it."

Kyomu rolled his eyes. "I'm not even sure Todoroki was worth it," he muttered. "I get he's got some _issue_ or whatever with his family, but... but seriously, what-"

The moment he'd said "what" was the exact same moment the two students had rounded a corner. Said corner happened to be the same corner another classmate of theirs was passing on the way to class. Mismatched eyes met theirs, with Todoroki briefly looking down at Midoriya and making a facial motion Kyomu could have sworn was a flicker of a smile. And then he looked up at Kyomu and his face melted in his default expression.

"Midoriya. Shinka," he greeted. "Midoriya, I didn't... I just wanted to say thanks. For everything you did for my sake." He looked to the side, avoiding both of their gazes. "I'm working things out. Even visited my mom in the hospital. My father and I still aren't exactly on speaking terms, but... things are better."

Kyomu had a questioning look on his face. Midoriya's was much more understanding, and was even beaming at Todoroki's words. This caused the black-haired student's confusion to grow. "Your mom's in a hospital?" he hesitantly asked.

"My father committed her after she burned my face."

There was a lot of implied mental baggage there Kyomu wished he hadn't stumbled upon. "Oh-! Sh-should I be around for this conversation?" A very awkward feeling began to wash over the black-haired teen. "I can go if-"

"No. It's okay." A low breath escaped Todoroki, with his head turning to the side. "I guess I just... wanted to apologize to you. For giving such a lackluster performance because I was so self-conflicted with my own power. Midoriya showed me how wrong I'd been all along. I suppose you hitting me like that helped the message become clearer."

Slowly, Kyomu nodded. "You're, uh... you're welcome?" he attempted. "Is everything alright at home, Todoroki? You're giving me some really disturbing information here."

The student's mismatched eyes regarded him for a brief moment, blinking and furrowing in an unsure way. "I wouldn't say my father is a good man..." he slowly said. "A fantastic hero, maybe. Between what he did to my mother and the hellish training he put me through without my consent, though, I don't know."

"... I think I get the picture," Kyomu said. He then tilted his head to the side, giving the other teen a light smile. "But hey, cheer up, huh? I'm supposed to be the only guy in class with family issues. It's all I got going for me."

He'd intended for it to be a lighthearted comment to lift the mood. He wasn't so sure that the statement had quite the affect he'd been hoping for, though, as the other two gave him concerned looks. The kind of looks that immediately made him regret saying what he did.

"I didn't mean to bring up bad memories, talking about family like that," Todoroki apologized. "I know my situation can't really compare to losing parents forever like yours, let alone the situation with your brother, but if you ever need to talk to somebody about it, I'm here. It's the least I could do."

Midoriya nodded. "The same goes for me," he said. "I know you always carry yourself like it doesn't bother you. It shows how strong you are, but... we're here for you, you know? Us and everybody else in the class. The offer still stands if you ever need to talk about it."

 _"There he goes again. Trying to help everybody around him."_ It took an immense amount of willpower for Kyomu's eyes to sink downwards and for his mouth to turn into a saddened frown. He managed, though, and was able to keep up his smiling mask. _"How can you help me if I can't tell you the truth, though? And besides, it's not your issue to worry about. It's between me and the villains."_

"Thanks, guys, but I'm good. Really." He stepped between them and rested a hand on each of their shoulders, giving each a reassuring smile all the while. "Now let's get to class, eh? I don't wanna mess up my perfect attendance record."

* * *

The energy of class 1-A was a bit higher than usual, as noted by Kyomu as he sat quietly in homeroom with all his classmates chatting around him. Likely it was still the energy high from the Sports Festival that was wearing off. Some were congratulating others on each others performance, others were bragging while a few lamented their early losses.

The quiet ones, of course, remained quiet. Koda, who was still too shy to actually talk and just nodded along while following conversations. Todoroki actually seemed to be exchanging a few words with Midoriya, which in of itself was a big change as he was usually satisfied with being silent. And of course there was Bakugo, who momentarily looked up from a math textbook to meet Kyomu's eyes. The eye contact lasted for all of two seconds before he huffed and went back to the book.

 _"I guess that means we're friends now?"_ Kyomu internally guessed. _"Hard to say with that guy. Todoroki looks like he's finally opening up, at least with Midoriya. Which is great, all things considering."_ He looked up at the ceiling. _"What was all that stuff he said about Endeavor, though? Guy makes it sound like he did some questionable things to his family. I wouldn't be too surprised after meeting him at the Sports Festival. But, ah... he's a good enough hero, and Todoroki seems... well, he's fine now. I'm sure it's not too serious."_

The class suddenly clamoring and staring ahead. Mr. Aizawa was at the front of the class, pointing to the board where the entirety of the class's names were being projected, with a number being alongside each one. Interestingly enough, Kyomu's name was at the top with a number over four thousand.

He leaned to the side and nudged Sen. "Hey, Sen. What's with the numbers?"

"They're the number of offers we got from heroes for the internship draft." A sullen, defeated look seemed to settle over his orange eyes as he looked at the screen their names were displayed in. "How come you get four thousand but I only get five?"

Kyomu peered closer at the screen. Sen's name was, in fact, at the bottom of the list, with a measly five there to set him apart from the rest. Looking at the list more closely, Kyomu noticed that a majority of the class hadn't even received offers, and was ready to point this out to Sen before he saw just hoe dejected he actually looked.

"You can just take mine," Kyomu offered. "It's not like I'm going to use them anyways. You take them."

Sen started, whirling in his seat to face Kyomu. Similarly, most of the students around them turned to fix him with the same look. "I, uh, appreciate that, Kyomu, I really do, but I don't think that's how it works."

"It isn't." The stern voice of their teacher brought the attention of everybody to the front of the room. "Shinka, the only students who may accept internship offers are the students said offers were made to. And you can't just trade them to others."

"Not like I want to even intern anyways," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Do I even have to?"

Aizawa frowned. "Interning with a professional hero is an opportunity to observe elements of what you'll be doing as a hero in the future and learn from it. It's not an opportunity you can afford to miss." When Kyomu didn't change the expression on his face, he added, "and yes, it's mandatory. Even those who didn't receive offers will be interning with heroes from a list of openings we have available."

A displeased look came across Kyomu's face, but he sat backwards and said no more. It was an issue he'd deal with later, away from others.

"Anyways, that brings us to your hero code names that will be recognized during your internships." Many breaths were hitched in the throat of many students upon the teacher saying this. "Keep in mind that these names, while not necessarily permanent, can stick." Noticeable lines were engraved into Aizawa's face as he let out a loud breath. "So be careful picking them out, because otherwise-"

"You'll be in a world of hurt later on!" Kyomu had barely even noticed the door to their homeroom being kicked open. Nor did he notice the R-rated hero step in with an armful of small whiteboards and markers in hand. The turmoil going on in his own head was so deafening that he could barely make anything out.

 _"Shit, I've never even thought of a hero name. I never cared enough to bother. I still can't think of one!"_ Hands immediately went up to intertwine with his own hair in panic. _"Why would they spring something so important on us last-second!? Were we supposed to have already thought this through!? Agh, why didn't I ever think of a name!?"_

"Midnight is here to help with your names and approve of any you come up with," Aizawa explained as the female teacher took her spot next to him. "This sort of thing isn't my forte, so I'm leaving this to her. Remember, don't pick something you'll regret later on because you were too lazy to think of a good one now." He reached down to pick up his yellow sleeping bag. The stress lines returned. "Don't let your friend pick out a stupid name, either."

And with that, their homeroom teacher retreated into his sleeping bag, lost in his own world of sleep. Kyomu, meanwhile, was so wrapped up in his own mental turmoil that he'd automatically picked up the whiteboard and marker that was handed to him.

"Hey, Shinka, you okay?" Strained eyes slowly glided towards the wide, concerned eyes of Kirishima. "You're not looking so hot there. You're paler than normal."

"... Fine, Kirishima. Thanks for the concern." Hand shaking, Kyomu slowly positioned the tip of his marker at the whiteboard as he desperately thought of a name. "I've just never put that much thought into a hero name before. I'm a bit unsure as to what I should put down."

To the side, Kaminari picked his head up. "What about something that relates to the color black since your Quirk is so dark? Like... I dunno, Darkie or something?"

Kyomu's features flattened. "I don't think that name would translate that well with the west," he said.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Don't mind him." A long, prehensile ear lobe wrapped around Kaminari's throat and pulled him backwards. Jiro took his place by bobbing her head right in Kyomu's view, giving him a reassuring smile. "Like Aizawa said, the name you pick now doesn't have to be your legitimate hero name for when you graduate. So just pick something for now and change it later if you don't like it."

Though Kyomu's hand wouldn't stop shaking, it did put his mind at ease. Enough for him to lazily write lines with his marker, at the very least. "How about you, Jiro?" he asked. "You have a good name picked out?"

"I-I mean, I, uh..." The purple-haired girl adopted a flustered look as her earjacks flapped around her head defensively. "Look, I'm thinkin' on it, alright?"

 _"That doesn't inspire much confidence."_ Kyomu turned back to his whiteboard as the teen with the long earlobes retreated to her own seat, dragging Kaminari with her. _"What's in a name? An age-old question that has never been more relevant up until this point. What kind of name should I pick? Hero names are supposed to represent everything there is about that hero. What they are. What they stand for. So what kind of hero am I going to look like in the eyes of the public?"_

A very lackluster one, if he was going to be honest. Especially since most of his planned activities would be done in utmost secret. Catching villains once in awhile in the eyes of the public was a given. Maybe, possibly help in a few disasters. Outside of that? He wasn't exactly looking for recognition.

 _"Ugh, I'm not All Might. I don't represent some kind of idea that makes up the backbone of our society. Maybe I should just go with a name based off a theme? Lotta heroes do that. My mom did that with her Quirk and the whole DNA thing. So what's my theme? Black? That, and... yeah, just black. Damn."_

He'd scribbled down some names. And then crossed those names off, and wrote down even more names. A bead of sweat began to roll down the side of his head as he scratched out name after name, each one worse than the last with the panic of him needing to present a name soon building. Because of course they were required to present their names in front of the whole class.

"Maybe... the Hero of Darkness?" he asked himself. "Sounds edgy, but, I mean-"

"You can't have that name." Kyomu looked to his side, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Tokoyami turned his avian head to meet Kyomu's eyes, and Dark Shadow was hovering right next to him with their own whiteboard held in its grip. Hero of Darkness was already written on it. "I've already claimed that title as something for me to possibly use," he said.

The black-haired teen gave him a flat look, with his mouth hanging open slightly. "Dude." Sighing, he crossed the name out. "Didn't want it anyways," he grumbled under his breath.

His marker would have returned to his whiteboard if it weren't for the fact that he felt breathing on his neck. Slowly, Kyomu had turned his head around to see who it was that was invading his personal space. His guard lowered when he saw it was just Midoriya looking at his list of names, though his eyes remained narrowed at the sight.

"I don't lean over and look at your stuff," he accused the smaller student. Midoriya chuckled, moving backwards and giving Kyomu his much-desired space.

"I just wanted to see what kind of names you were thinking up," he admitted. "It looks like you're having a bit of trouble, actually."

Kyomu sighed. "A little bit, yeah. What do you think? Any of these sound good to you?"

He held his list of thought-up and rejected names up to Midoriya. Green eyes homed in on the names written down as he held his chin in his hand, slowly nodding as he went through the names. "Umbras, Nero, Kuro... these all just mean black, Shinka."

"I don't really have a lot going for me."

"Don't say that. You have a lot. Wait, these scratched-out ones on the side here... 'The Fury?' 'The Rage?' 'The Hate?' What's with all these names, Shinka?"

The list was quickly pulled back. "I was just spitballing some names. Don't look too deep into it." Upon seeing Midoriya's unchanging stare, he attempted to change the subject. "What about your name?"

The stare melted away for a worried one not too unlike Kyomu's own. "I'm struggling a bit, too," he admitted. "I tried a lot of things, but I just can't find one that sticks with me."

"You try Small Might?"

"Eh?" A small blush came to the student's cheeks. "Eh!? W-why would you think of a name like that, Shinka!?"

Kyomu shrugged. "I dunno. You fanboy out over All Might all the time, especially when he's teaching us, and your ability to punch things really, really hard is kinda like his. So, you know, Small Might. 'Cause you're small."

His mouth remained agape for a few moments, thought quickly closed with a huff as Midoriya turned away. "I'm not that tiny," he mumbled.

"You're right; that honor belongs to Mineta."

"Hey!" An annoyed voice rang out from the other side of the class. "I take offense to that!"

A pale hand pointed off towards the source of the voice. "Nothin' but love for ya, Mineta," Kyomu said, eyes still trained on Midoriya. "Look, if we can't think of any good names, it ain't the end of the world. So I'm not too stressed about it."

"Hm..." Upon snapping his fingers, a smile came to Midoriya's face. "That gives me an idea. I wonder... yeah!" He retreated to his own desk and whiteboard, mumbling incoherently to himself. Kyomu could only shake his head as he went back to his own devices, slowly scribbling more names out.

"Black, black, black... maybe I should use black as my name, but in a different language? Give it a bit of a twist there. Lessee... English for black is black. Chinese is heise or something like that... nah. What's black is Spanish? It's... negro, right?" The marker halted. "... No. Damn it, Kaminari, I blame you for that one."

This was a process that continued for a long while. Most of his classmates all around him were in similar states of despair at their own names, with a few having confident and short strokes with their markers. Kyomu had felt a short sense of jealousy for those that had clearly already had names picked out, but in the end it was let go in the effort of him trying to come up with a fitting name for himself.

The time, of course, had come for them all to present their names one-by-one in front of the whole class in front of everybody. Some names were more successful than others. Tsuyu, for instance, had a name she'd picked out years ago since she made the decision to become a hero. Froppy. Something completely original and child-friendly enough that Kyomu could easily see it on a cereal box. Of course that one had been given an automatic pass from Midnight, and even inspired some confidence in other people in their own names.

Then, of course, there were the rejected names. Bakugo's name, Lord Explosion Murder, was a given. Kyomu had a hard enough time trying to figure out why he would even want something like that. Ashido's Alien Queen was also rejected.

Otherwise, name after name was given to each prosperous hero. Midoriya, for whatever reason, had chosen Deku as his hero name. Todoroki had chosen just to use his given name, Shoto, as his hero name, which gave Kyomu some hope when it was allowed. Sen had decided to take Occam's Razor to his hero name and chose Tragic Impact, a name whose non-ironic meaning was not lost on everybody that heard it.

But, of course, Kyomu's time had eventually come. Nervousness began to exponentially grow inside of him as he trudged his way up to the front of the class, whiteboard clutched tightly in his hands.

"I know you can be nervous, Shinka, but smile!" At the very least Midnight was trying to help him. If only he could take her completely seriously in that outfit, but for the effort she put out he'd try his best to listen. "Everybody else has already went, and they're all fine! You have nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, I know." Taking a heavy breath, Kyomu squared his shoulders and turned his whiteboard around to face the class. "I, uh... yeah. This is the best I got."

A majority of the whiteboard was covered with so many crossed-out names that it was practically a solid black. There was one erased section near the center, around a bunch of squiggles and doodles made in procrastination, where a single name was visibly written. It may have even been circled, too, but there was so much ink around the name it was hard to actually tell.

Kurai.

"It means black," Kyomu intoned upon seeing the questioning looks of his classmates. "My Quirk is Void, so I figured my name should reflect the color black. My costume, too, as you all have seen."

"Well..." The discerning looks slowly going through Midnight's face didn't set Kyomu at ease. If she liked a name, she'd usually immediately passed it. "Kurai is usually associated with human moods relating to the color black, not the color itself. Gloominess, depression, even ignorance."

 _"Well, that last one isn't so inaccurate, now, is it?"_ A small part of the back of Kyomu's mind noted.

"It just isn't a name that screams 'positivity', you know?" Midnight continued. "It's too... dreary. Not very hero-like. Why not just use a name that actually means black? I see you thought of a bunch on the board there."

Kyomu turned the board just out of Midnight's view. "I think it has a really good intimidating kind of vibe," he defensively stated. "I mean, there's already a lotta heroes with inspiring names. I don't want some cutesy name like Pinky. No offense, Ashido. I think it's a great name." There was a huff in the back of the room. "And if you don't give this to me, I'm just gonna use my normal name like Todoroki did. I don't really care either way."

The older hero bit the bottom of her lip, though after an intense stare-off with the younger student she finally relented with a nod of her head. "Fine, you can use Kurai. If it doesn't work out, you can just change it down the line before you graduate."

"Great, cool, thanks." With a sigh, Kyomu set his board down and retreated to his seat.

* * *

 _"This is... oh."_ A distressed look came across the black-haired teen's face as he flipped through hundreds of pages of names. _"How do they expect me to pick one of these out by the end of the day?"_

By now, everybody had left for their lunch period. After choosing their names, the lists containing their internship offers, or a list of available heroes to those that received no offers, was passed out to everybody. Kyomu's list, naturally, was thicker than everybody else's lists due to the fact he'd obtained more offers than everybody else combined. Over four thousand heroes and hero agencies. And he was expected to pick one out before the day was out. Preferably during the lunch period like everybody else.

This lead Kyomu to where he was now: standing in his homeroom alone as he hopelessly ran through what seemed like endless names that held absolutely no meaning to him and eventually began to blur together after a few dozen names. Simply put, he didn't want to intern. He knew exactly what kind of hero he wanted to be when he became one, and he very much doubted there were heroes that could teach him how to secretly kill villains while maintaining a hero position. Tough responsibilities to juggle, for sure.

Furthermore, the names had been listed in order of their submission. The names weren't ordered alphabetically. They weren't even categorized by what specialty the hero or association practiced in, whether it be through villain combat, patrol, rescue, or anything else. Agencies and singular heroes weren't even separated. It was all a mish-mash of names Kyomu didn't recognize with only vague descriptions next to each one. And he was required to pick one out of thousands before the day was up.

 _"Maybe I can get some help here."_ He noticed that Aizawa was just now getting up from his nap, hands lethargic as he unzipped himself from his sleeping bag. _"If he can help, great. If not, I'll just pick out a random name in the middle and live with it."_

He stepped towards towards the front of the room. Aizawa took note of him immediately, tired eyes slowly blinking in his direction before he shook his head to get rid of some of the sleep. The look he had given the student was, at the very least, not a hostile one but an inquisitive one. It was as good a start as any.

"Shinka?" he questioned, stretching his neck to the side to let out a few audible pops from his neck. He looked towards the clock on the wall while doing this, and then blinked and looked back at the student. "It should be lunch by now," he noted. "Why are you still here?"

"Yeah, about that." Kyomu cleared his throat, looking down at the thick sheaf of papers in his hand before sighing and looking back up at the teacher. "Mr. Aizawa. Can I intern with you?"

The silence that followed was, in a word, uncomfortable. Kyomu had expected an answer from Aizawa immediately, as he'd come to know the teacher long enough to recognize he had a fast mind for these types of situations. The fact that multiple, silent seconds had passed between the two did nothing to set him at ease.

"What?" Aizawa blinked again. "Shinka, you have thousands of heroes that want you to intern for them. Just pick one."

"Yeah, but those are all... they're not..." The teen struggled to find the right words, but looking at Aizawa was enough to give him an idea to try. "All those heroes are just too flashy, you know? I'm n- I'm not like everybody else in the class." He gestured to the empty seats behind him. "I don't wanna be a hero who's on TV all the time and gets tons of coverage and everything. And most of these heroes-" he slapped the papers, "- are all super showy for the camera. I know they're professionals, and that they take their jobs super seriously and everything, but... I want to be a hero like you. Somebody who mainly works nights and who doesn't get any exposure. All that fame just seems like dead weight to me, and you get by just fine without it."

In his defense, he wasn't exactly lying. The less media exposure he gained as a hero, the better. Less popularity, less notoriety, and more room to work around in when he went after villains as a hero. Working at nights would only further help this. Less people and less visibility in general. And Aizawa fit all these with the position he held as the kind of hero he was. He figured if anybody could help him the most as an intern, it would be his own homeroom teacher. And if that didn't work, he could at least point him towards a hero who met a similar criteria. Just somebody who Kyomu could get some use out of due to this whole internship dilemma.

The look he was receiving from Aizawa, however, was not an encouraging one. "I appreciate the sentiment, Shinka, but I'm not really in a position to be interning anybody," he said. "Teaching at UA eats up a lot of time between planning around the curriculum to meet the class's requirements in improvement set by you students and actual teaching. I haven't even been working as a hero every night ever since I took up a position here just so I can get sleep in some nights. Why do you think I sleep here a lot of the time?"

"I just thought you were narcoleptic," Kyomu admitted. It was impossible to tell if his teacher derived any amusement from the comment or not. "But I can see your point."

"I simply don't have the time, Shinka. None of the teachers do." There went his chances of interning with him. Aizawa did hold out his hand to Shinka, though, and looked towards the papers in his hand. Hesitantly, Kyomu placed the stack in the awaiting hand. Almost automatically Aizawa began flipping through the papers, his eyes rapidly moving as he read the names presumably through his head. "I can understand why you'd want to intern with me if your desire is to be that kind of hero," he said. "And while there are hundreds of heroes here who can help teach you basic skills for when you become a hero, a majority of them won't be able to help you much in that area. And you learn quickly enough that I'm not worried about you picking up basic skills at some point." He stopped on a page. "I can point you to a hero that works at nights, though. I participated in a joint operation with him a few years back. He's... competent, as far as heroes go."

That alone was enough to pique Kyomu's interest. He remained silent as Aizawa reached to his desk, taking a pen and circling a name. "He doesn't really specialize in any specific hero role," he continued, "so while he's not exceptional at anything, he's well-rounded in all areas and can give you a fair bit of basic pointers, and the practical experience can do you some good as well. It's a safe internship for a first year like you for setting up a solid foundation for the future."

He handed the papers to Kyomu, who gladly took and looked through them. His eyes immediately focused on the one circled name. "Null-man?" he asked, looking up at the teacher.

"His Quirk is similar to mine," he explained. "He's able to affect objects temporarily with his Quirk, and anybody who comes into contact with said objects have their Quirk nullified for the duration his Quirk affects the object and/or the time they remain in contact with the object he's affected. It's a good power for capturing villains."

"Ah, I see." A useful power, Kyomu supposed. Aizawa got by just fine with such a similar power, though he wasn't limited to objects. Looking at the circle, he noticed there wasn't much in terms of information besides his name other than contact info. But, if Aizawa vouched for him, Kyomu would give it a shot.

"If I recall, he sent a internship request to your friend, Eikyo, as well." And as fortune would have it, there was a cherry on top. "Students working in pairs on internships isn't uncommon, though most of the time it's by coincidence. I don't really recommend you make it a common practice, but you two work effectively together in practical exercises if what All Might says is true. And working nights for heroes can usually be more hazardous compared to the day. Give it some thought if you're serious about this."

Kyomu nodded. "I will," he promised, turning his back to his teacher and going towards the door. He made it three steps before he stopped and turned his head around. "And thanks, Aizawa. Really."

"Just don't expect me to help you with something like this again. I'm just pointing you in the right direction. Your choices are yours to make from here on out." That, in Aizawa-speak, was about as close to a "you're weclome" Kyomu would ever get from the man short of saving his life if the opportunity ever arose. And even then Kyomu didn't even know if he ever properly thanked Midoriya for helping carrying his broken body out during the USJ incident. "And Shinka?"

"Mm?" One foot was already out the door, but Kyomu had stopped once more to address his teacher. "Yes?"

"... Never mind." Aizawa waved a hand towards Kyomu, signaling him to leave.

He raised an eyebrow in response, but eventually shrugged it off and made it out the door. The sheaf of papers in his hand felt immensely lighter than it had five minutes ago, and for that he was thankful.

* * *

Kyomu was on a train the next day. Sen was there, too. Said train was heading towards a city named Hosu, as that was the location where Null-man was located.

The two students had briefly discussed it and, seeing not reason not to, they'd submitted their internship papers to Null-man's hero agency the same day they'd received their offers. After that, they'd been shipped out to their own respective internships along with everybody else in the class. Because of the diverse amount of internships, though, most students had gone completely separate directions of one another. Kyomu and Sen were two of the exceptions. There was a third one on their train, though they sat in a separate car from them.

"Hm." With one hand in his pocket and another hand holding the case containing his costume, currently slung over his shoulder, Kyomu turned his head towards the back of the train car. The window to the door leading to the next car was grimy with all sorts of substances and graffiti, but he could just barely make out the features of other people on the other side. One figure looked familiar enough that Kyomu had picked him out in a heartbeat. "Iida's on the train, too."

"Oh yeah?" Unlike Kyomu, Sen had chosen a seated position. His own costume case was stored at his feet, with his own hands resting behind his head as he leaned back in the seat. "I think I heard he got an internship in Hosu like we did."

"Ah." About as justifiable a reason as any. "He seems to be doing well for the most part. Especially after that whole thing with his brother."

There'd been a bit of worry going around class 1-A after Iida's unexpected withdrawal from the Sports Festival due to an impromptu personal emergency. The general hope among them all was that it wasn't anything too serious. It was only the next time they were in school did Kyomu learn what the situation was from word of mouth from other students. And, of course, Midoriya during one of their free periods.

 _"A serial killer who exclusively kills heroes. Stain."_ There was a cruel irony in the fact that a serial killer who killed heroes gained so much notoriety in such a short amount of time, but he, a serial killer of villains, was literally unknown to the populace. Then again, he didn't leave clues. Or bodies, for that matter. Stain, on the other hand, left bodies in alleys and was captured on camera. Opposites in every aspect. _"Iida's hero brother got caught up with the killer by chance, and now he's paraplegic. He seemed fine today and yesterday, but... how would I react, if I heard that Hikari got paralyzed because a serial killer stabbed his spinal cord?"_ He frowned. _"Well, then again, I don't really need to worry about Hikari dying. He's on the villain side. Worst case is that a hero captures him and he gets sent back to prison. Stain doesn't go after villains as far as I know."_

His eyes trailed out to the train windows. They were moving between cities at this point, and trees were rushing quickly past them in a green blur. There were mountains visible behind all those trees, as well. None of it was a good enough distraction to keep Kyomu's thoughts off his brother. From the risks he was living every day as a villain. How Kyomu himself would react if he was severely hurt or killed. And no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find an answer to how he would react.

He desired a stronger distraction.

"So I guess Iida took his hero name from his brother?" Kyomu asked. When Sen didn't respond and just looked up in confusion at the teen, he elaborated. "Ingenium. It was his brother's hero name, right? Now Iida's using it."

Sen shrugged. "Not like his brother can use it anymore. I think it's Iida's way of showing respect for the guy. Must have really looked up to him."

"... Suppose so." Kyomu shifted the case on his shoulder and rocked back and forth on his feet. "Speaking of names. Tragic Impact? Really?"

The folds of skin where Sen's eyebrows should have been creased in annoyance. "I don't want to hear it from you, Kurai," he remarked. "And if there can be a hero called Gang Orca, then I can use Tragic Impact."

Kyomu began to nod in acceptance, but then stopped halfway. "There's a hero called Gang Orca?" he asked.

"Mm-hm." Sen nodded.

"Oh." A moment of silence passed. "What's he look like?"

"Like an anthropomorphic orca."

In a world of Quirks, it shouldn't have been surprising. One of his classmates was half frog, for crying out loud. And maybe it was just the fact that the word "Gang" was in the name that was catching Kyomu off guard. "Gang" wasn't a very heroic title. But, seeing as it evidently was one, he could see how Sen's Tragic Impact got an immediate pass from Midnight. And it also made Kyomu feel less self-conscious about his own hero name, Kurai.

"Gang Orca, huh?" Kyomu pursed his lips together, slowly nodding his head. At the same time, the train was beginning to slow down. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Hey, our stop's up."

"Word?" Sen craned his head upwards as the train pulled into a station. "Oh, cool. You know where the place is, right?" He untangled himself from his seat and reached under it, grabbing the case holding his costume.

The sound of ruffling was heard from Kyomu's back pocket before he pulled out an extremely crumpled piece of paper, the content of which, though smudged with grape juice Kyomu had spilled this morning, had the address of the hero agency they would be interning at. "So, Sen."

"Yeah?"

"You ever been to Hosu?"

"Nah."

"Great, me neither." The paper was shoved back into Kyomu's pocket as the two walked out of the train, cases slung over their shoulders as they walked between the crowds of other people leaving. "So, like, I don't know any of the streets or anything. Guess we should start walking around? Maybe find a map or something?"

Kyomu poked his head out one of the windows in the train station platform. The sight that greeted him was, unsurprisingly, a city. Complete with buildings, streets, and people bustling in said streets. Streets and buildings he was completely unfamiliar with.

"Or," Kyomu looked back at Sen, who held his phone up, "we can just plug the address on the internship form into my map app and let that lead us."

"... Or we could do that," he conceded, stepping away from the window. "So! Where to?"

* * *

Kyomu's faith in map-based technology was on a rapid decline by the time they'd reached the hero agency of Null-man. Not for speed at which they'd arrived to the actual location- thanks to Sen's help, they'd managed to find the place on foot in less than half an hour. Kyomu was more concerned with the accuracy and if they'd arrived in the right place at all.

He'd seen a few hero agencies around the city he and Sen lived in. Sometimes around the city, other times on the train ride to UA, most of the time on TV when somebody was interviewing a hero. One time in a UA textbook, even. Usually they were large, sterling buildings that put even the most luscious office complexes to shame. Once in awhile they even had the name of the hero agency on display up above the door.

Well, that was certainly on the building they'd arrived at, and Kyomu was having a hard time calling it a building. It looked more like a rundown office space wedged between two actual buildings,and if that wasn't enough one of the windows was broken from what looked like a rock had been thrown above it. "Null Agency" was written above the entrance rather crudely by blue spray paint. And looking around it was clear to see that the surrounding structures weren't in much of a better state.

"You sure this is the place?" Once again the paper was dug from Kyomu's pocket as he looked from it to the address numbers that were printed on the side of the buildings. The ones that hadn't been worn away, at least. "The numbers... mostly add up, but this place doesn't look like one a hero works in."

"Map app don't lie, man." Sen held up his phone while pointing towards the building. "Thing's completely accurate. This is the place."

"Ah-huh. What's that app called again?"

"Mapp."

Kyomu sighed. "Course it is." He crumpled the paper and threw it over his shoulder, only for Sen to catch it and throw it away in a nearby garbage can that was overflowing with so much trash that it was spilling out onto the streets. At the same time, Kyomu had made it to the front door of the building and had rung the doorbell. Nothing happened, causing Kyomu to frown and bang on the front door repeatedly. When there was no answer, his frown deepened and he went back to Sen's side.

"Uh..." Sen shifted the case carrying his costume to his other shoulder as he anxiously looked from Kyomu to the building. "Maybe somebody's coming?"

"I'm gonna give it five minutes before I break in," Kyomu stated flatly.

"That's... alright." The bald teen looked to the side at Kyomu, looking him up and down before focusing on his case. A grin came to his face. "You know, since both your street clothes and hero costume are completely black, you probably coulda just worn your costume and nobody would have known the difference."

Looking down at his black shirt, Kyomu let out a sound of disagreement. "Yeah, well, the costume's bulletproof. My shirt isn't. And that would only work with people that know me."

"Heh, yeah, I- wait, they made yours bulletproof?"

"I mean... bulletproof-ish." Kyomu shrugged. "Eh, something about ballistic weaving meshed with some kinda ultralight space-age polymer kind of- I dunno, they highlighted all the details in the costume form I pretended to read." Blue eyes focused on Sen. "They didn't make everybody else's bulletproof?"

Sen shook his head. "Nah, I mean... it's not like they skimped out on the material cost or anything, thing's high-end, but I don't think it'll be stopping bullets anytime soon." He shot his own costume case a contemplative look before looking back at Kyomu. "But still, bulletproof is pretty neat."

"And yet it can't defend against blades made of light." Impatience had begun to grow on Kyomu's face as his foot began to incessantly tap on the cracked and graffiti-marked pavement underneath them. "If somebody doesn't come through that door real soon here-"

"Hold it!" An older- significantly older- male voice sounded out from the interior of the building the two teens stood in front of. The door swung out a quarter of the way before abruptly halting. There were muffled curses from the other side before the door closed for two second before swinging fully outwards with the chain lock swinging freely.

The man that stepped through the open doorway was, from Kyomu's perspective, wildly underwhelming in his appearance. An older, slightly overweight man in a too-tight bright blue latex costume. Wide, soft brown eyes that would have matched the shade of his hair and mustache if it weren't for the patches of gray surrounding those.

 _"Okaaay..."_ Unsure, Kyomu glanced over at Sen. He, too, had a look of slight confusion and unease about him upon seeing the hero in front of them. _"Not, uh, not exactly what I was expecting. Who exactly have you dragged me to, Aizawa?"_

"Oh, I... oh!" His large eyes blinked over at the two before a big grin came to his face. He walked towards them at a brisk pace that bordered on being just too fast for comfort before he held a hand out to the both of them. Kyomu was fairly certain he saw condiment stains on his glove. "I'm the hero Null-man! I assume you two are the UA students I'm to be interning?"

 _"Calm down."_ A forced smile tugged at Kyomu's mouth as he delicately shook the hand, taking care to avoid the stains on the glove. _"Guy's a full-blown, professional hero. Might not have been UA, but he went through a hero course and got certified and everything. Aizawa even vouched for him. Looks can be deceiving. I'm sure he's a good hero."_

His bald friend had decided to speak on their behalf while Kyomu desperately wrenched his hand away from the hero. "Yeah, we're the interns. Heh." He turned his head to the side and coughed nervously. "So, how's this work? Do we, uh, go through some orientation or something, go through some ground rules, maybe-"

"Don't worry about that! We work nights; we'll talk about all that later." The hero had turned around in a rather jovial manner and began to slowly walk back to the crumbling building he evidently called a agency. "'til then, come on in! Make yourselves at home! There, eh heh, may be a few, er, dozen pizza boxes scattered around the place, hope you don't mind. But, ah, what am I saying!? You're both students in the famous UA class 1-A! If you can fend off villains, you can help me with a little trash!"

The internship had just started, and already Kyomu was regretting a majority of his decisions. From the looks of things, Sen wasn't too far behind him.

"I'm just gonna get this outta the way right now," Sen whispered as they followed Null-man. "I'm blaming you if this experience turns out terribly since you convinced me to come with you on this."

Kyomu jabbed an elbow into Sen's ribs. "Yeah, sure, Mr. I-only-got-five-internship-offers."

"And any one of the other four probably would have turned out better than this is going to be."

A withered breath escaped Kyomu. "That's... yeah, that's fair."


	20. Chapter 20

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 20- Diamond Dust**

* * *

There were no words to describe the psychological torment that was sitting in a car with Null-man.

Now, if Kyomu had the mental fortitude to do so, he probably could have managed scouring a dictionary for a word that went beyond five syllables to perfectly describe his current experiencing interning the hero. Perhaps. The possibility was there. But he couldn't even muster up the will to say anything outside of affirmative grunts whenever the hero asked him something, so he doubted he could have even attempted such a laborious task.

At least Sen was there. Keeping him company in silent suffering.

Where they were currently was inside a car, with both teens sitting in the back seat while the hero drove the car. What the make and model of the car was, Kyomu had no idea. He also had no idea if the car was colored brown of if there actually was paint and that color was, in fact, rust. He wasn't very optimistic on the car being decent considering it sounded like it was dying every kilometer they drove down. And though he wasn't certain of it, he was almost positive all the mirrors being severely cracked was a safety violation.

The reason for all this suffering? Patrol. Specifically, nightly patrol, because that was the reason Kyomu signed onto this torture to begin with. Prior to this had just mainly been waiting around Null-man's agency building, picking up trash and making idle talk with Sen as the hero napped on a couch. And then the sun went down, and almost immediately the hero had sprung up, yelled at them to put their costumes on, and proclaimed that a "real hero was about to show them what real hero work was" before he bolted out the front door to pull the car up so that they could patrol. Kyomu had argued that he'd never seen a hero patrol in a car. Sen had weakly tried to defend him by saying it was the hero's unique style. Kyomu had called it malarkey. Sen wistfully agreed.

"Crime is ever present in a hero society, both day and night. That's why heroes like _us_ are around, after all! However, unlike evil, we heroes actually do need sleep." Null-man snorted loudly as he sharply turned a corner. "That's why people like me exist. People who do nightly patrols while those that do daily patrols rest. Of course, there are those that alternate between days and nights. And if you're one of those big time heroes you'll always find time to do some hero work... but you boys don't need to worry about that!"

A sound that could have been interpreted as both "yeah?" and "kill me" escaped Kyomu's lips. Fortunately, it was too quiet for anyone to hear.

"Most nights aren't this slow, believe it or not," Null-man continued. "Villains usually like to conduct their work at night, though most of the bigger cleanup operations are handled by heroes who specialize in that kind of thing, the police, or any heroes that've been signed on temporarily for a big operation. But you usually find a few drunk lads accosting a young woman, a mugging, someone drunk showing off a flashy Quirk, some late-night domestic abuse, that sort of thing."

Sen's eyes shifted upwards to the cracked rear-view mirror. "That... last one sounded way more serious than the other ones."

"They're all serious, son." Those big, soft eyes of the hero looked up at the mirror and narrowed in what Kyomu guessed was supposed to be a way of showing complete seriousness. "Villainy is serious business."

 _"I wonder if a tumble from this speed would be enough to snap my neck if my body wasn't so tough,"_ Kyomu idly wondered. It truly was the worst-case scenario he'd been dreading ever since he learned of the internships: a colossal waste of his time. Though in that case he'd just been afraid of being dragged around doing hero stuff he'd never do when he became a hero. In that way, what was happening right now was even worse, because there wasn't anything to even learn from yet. Just mindless patrol through brightly-lit streets in the middle of the night.

But, maybe that wasn't Null-man's fault. Maybe it really was just a slow night. Maybe they would get into some good old-fashioned hero work in the night, just like the kind his teacher Aizawa, a.k.a. Eraser Head, did. Or maybe Kyomu was fooling himself and hoping for a reality that just wasn't met to be.

"Gotta say, I was real surprised when a couple'a UA boys decided to intern with me," the hero noted. "Last internship I got was, oh, seven, eight years ago? Not from UA, either. Forget the school, actually. But still, I was shocked! Usually some of the larger agencies pick you kids out, like Best Jeanist's or Endeavor's. Never expected to get not just two UA kids, but one who won the Sports Festival to boot!"

"There's been a lot of surprises tonight, sir," Kyomu demurred. Sen flicked him on the shoulder for this.

"Anyways," Null-man continued, "I never went to UA or one of the bigger hero schools. Too far outta my purview, y'know? But I didn't need it anyways. I do just fine, patrolling these streets and-"

Electrical, static-y noises interrupted what was sure to be a lesson with wisdom beyond Kyomu's years. The sounds were coming from the car's radio, which immediately drew the hero's attention while the two student's looked at it with uncertainty.

"Oh, hold on now." An intense amount of focus began to seemingly radiate out of the hero's eyes as he reached down to the radio to turn the knobs. The noticeable sound of police chatter was filtering through the speakers. "We may have something here."

Kyomu blinked, his eyes maintaining their gaze on the radio. "That's a police scanner."

Sen nodded. "Yep."

"He's listening on a police channel."

"Yes, that is what he would be doing."

"Is a hero even allowed to do that?"

"I..." The bald teen's face scrunched in confusion. "I don't really know," he admitted.

The conversation only carried this far before the two were forcibly lurched back into their seats and the car zoomed forwards. Null-man, for all he was worth, was practically bursting out of the seams in excitement as he drove the car forwards.

 _"Geez,"_ Kyomu internally groused as the car rounded a sharp corner. _"Is every single hero a reckless driver?"_

"Looks like we got a crime in progress, boys," Null-man announced, hands firmly grasped around the steering wheel. "Suppose this is as good a time as any to teach you boys about apprehending villains!"

The amount of enthusiasm felt between the two boys was less than it should have been.

* * *

The crime, as explained by Null-man along the way, was apparently a break-in in the Hosu city museum. A security guard had called in reporting said break-in, describing a legitimate villain attack.

To Kyomu's surprise, it actually was legal for Null-man to have that police scanner. In fact, it was necessary as villain attacks warranted a hero presence, and once he had heard the call he had reported he would be investigating the scene to try and attempt to apprehend the villain if one such was present. Not required, but helped speed things along when it came to crime response. Which Kyomu supposed was why police used them.

Made him wonder why more heroes didn't use this system. Surprisingly, Null-man had helpfully pointed out that bigger agencies had people specifically for listening to police channels and relaying relevant villain information to heroes out in the field. Null-man ran his own independent agency, so he had to do his own police scanner monitoring. Other patrol heroes, conversely, did normal patrols without the aid of a police scanner, especially if they didn't work at or had their own agency.

"Huh," was the only response Kyomu was able to muster. It was the most interesting and useful information he'd been given all day. And perhaps he'd even gained a modicum of respect for Null-man.

Eventually, they'd pulled into the museum. A normal-looking museum to Kyomu's observation. Large building with museum signs everywhere with the only other car in the parking lot besides their's being the car of the security guard. Sen looked fairly excited, hopping from foot to foot in anticipation. Null-man stood tall and was otherwise very professional-looking as he stared towards the front door of the museum. Kyomu's posture was slumped with his hands in his pockets, but was otherwise attentive to the surroundings.

"Any idea why a villain would attack a museum of all places?" the black-haired teen asked as the trio walked towards the museum entrance. "I've heard of some villains doing some real weird stuff, sure, but a museum? Really?"

"Could be any number of reasons," Null-man answered. "A lot of the exhibits in there are worth their weight in gold. Of course, there could be a number of motivations outside of money. He could have a personal grudge against the museum, or he could just be sowing random chaos and chose the museum. Maybe he just doesn't like modern art." He shrugged. "Knowing the why of it isn't really our problem. That's for the justice system to solve. We're here just to catch him."

"So... did the security guard give a description of the villain?" Sen questioned. "He would have had to use his Quirk to warrant heroes being called. Right?"

Kyomu nodded. "Yeah, they woulda just sent some beat cops if it was a normal robber. Those rules get thrown out the window if you start throwing superpowers everywhere." He looked towards the hero. "So what's that description, Mr. Pro?"

The older man huffed. "The description isn't much, as the security guard's radio cut out in the middle. Male perp, medium build, something about ice."

"Ice powers, huh?" Kyomu and Sen looked at each other, and then broke the eye contact with Kyomu speaking first. "That's not a lot to go on."

"Yeah, not without knowing things like the maximum temperature they can push, range of their powers, their freezing vector and whether it's based off touch, long-ranged projectiles, proxies spawned from the body..." Sen began counting off his fingers as weeks of villains lessons rattled through his head. "Yeah, Kyomu's right, that's not a lot."

"You could tell a stranger Todoroki had ice powers, and all that could mean for them is his power ranges from being able to freeze a puddle to being able to freeze a whole building," Kyomu added.

"Welcome to fighting villains, kids." A low laugh escaped Null-man as the three approached the museum entrance. "Unless it's a known villain with a Quirk on record, you're often going in blind. The fact we have ice to work off of is better than nothing." He reached a hand out to the door's handle, but then stopped. "'proxies spawned from-' what does that even mean?"

Sen grimaced. "It was in one of our villain combat textbooks. Had a villain that spawned insects out of their body that froze stuff of their own volition. UA's really... thorough in preparing us for weird stuff we might fight as heroes and how to counter it."

The hesitation in saying the word "thorough" was very noticeable to Kyomu, and for good reason. UA intended on making those in the hero course the best heroes around, and being a good hero meant being able to respond to any kind of situation and villain, no matter how strange the Quirk involved was. This often lead to overly creative Quirks they were to analyze for theory assignments on how to counter them. It was Kyomu's opinion they could have started off with more generic Quirks before leading into the stranger ones, but he wasn't one to write the curriculum. Even if he was confident he'd never run into a villain that could harden earwax into weapons harder than diamond.

The Thursday they'd received that assignment had been a very conducive day.

They'd all finally entered the museum, going right into the lobby. The interior lighting was off with the exception of a few lights in hallways leading to exhibit wings, likely for the guard's convenience. To sign of a rampaging villain, though- or a security guard. If anything, it was eerily quiet.

 _"Security guards aren't legally qualified to handle a villain, so there's no way the guard would have engaged once he saw ice coming out of the guy. Or whatever it was he saw."_ Kyomu was the first the enter, running his fingers along some velvet guard rails leaning on the wall as he observed the quiet surroundings. _"He couldn't have left. His car's still here, and even a guard scared out of his mind would go for the vehicle to get him out of here fast. The sensible thing would have been for him to wait for the heroes to arrive to give them the rundown of what he saw to aid them, but he's not at the main entrance. And it's not like we would have entered anywhere else; the villain likely knows we're coming, so there's no point sneaking in. And that's assuming he's even still here."_

"Guard's either hiding in a closet somewhere, incapacitated, or dead," Kyomu concluded, turning back to the other two. "Probably dead," he added.

Sen rolled his eyes, though his fingers did nervously flex. "You're such an optimist," he snarked, stepping forwards.

"Hm." A thoughtful look came over Null-man's face as he stepped in last. His mustache was practically quivering as he looked around at the quiet, dark surroundings. "A bit early to be calling the villain a killer," he said. "We shouldn't quit on the guard based off assumptions."

"We're only here because a guard saw him," Kyomu argued. "Only reason he'd want a guard alive is for hostages. You don't take hostages when trying to pull off a silent crime- it's a waste of time and introduces too many risk factors. So he either killed the guard, knocked him out, which is less likely, or the guard somehow escaped and he's hiding somewhere." He looked back at the hero. "We can deal with the guard after the villain, can't we?"

Null-man frowned. "Our responsibility is the protection of others above all else," he said. "We're heroes because we save people. It's our duty to ensure the guard's safety and then apprehend the villain if he is still at the premises."

Kyomu gave the hero an impassive look. "Well, you can go and waste your time doing that if you want. I'm gonna go find the villain."

A response wasn't given, though the hero did affix Kyomu with a steely glare that the teen challenged with his own glare. This had the effect of providing a tense atmosphere in the room that was broken when Sen stepped in between the two of them.

"Heh-heh, can, uh, I can I get a second with him here?" He gave the hero a small smile with his eyes closed, but once he turned his head towards Kyomu his eyes snapped open and his smile turned downwards. "Kyomu, we're going for the guard first."

"Wh-what?" The other teen's eyes blinked in confusion. "Sen, you can't seriously-"

"He's right, we're heroes, and we need to ensure the safety of others over the capture of villains. They taught us that week one. And you can't use death as an argument when we don't know the guard's status."

Kyomu opened his mouth to protest, but closed it when he saw that Sen was maintaining his glare. Null-man, likewise, was now shooting him a disapproving look from behind his friend.

A low sigh escaped him. There was no progress to be made when both were against him.

"We're wasting time. Look," he said, spreading his arms out, "how about this? We can split up and look for the guard and villain simultaneously. We're gonna have to anyways, since we don't know where either are, and if we run into the villain before the guard we'll have to fight him just to defend ourselves."

"You mean I'll have to fight him," Null-man corrected. "You two are interns; you don't even have provisional licenses. If you do find the villain before the guard you're to call me and fall back to observe. Is that clear?"

He didn't bother to argue the point. In fact, his face turned inquisitive as he leaned closer to the hero. "So you agree we should split up?" he asked.

Null-man nodded, crossing his arms while looking from left to right. "We need to find the two as quickly as possible, you're right. So here's what we'll do: I'll take the east side of the building, and you two will take the west. Agreed?"

The two students looked at each other, with both briefly nodding in agreement before facing the hero once more. The three split off immediately afterwards, each going to their predetermined search locations. While walking away, Kyomu had briefly felt the eyes of the hero on his back before the feeling left with the sound of fading foot replacing it.

Kyomu was happy to have just gotten away from him for the moment.

* * *

The search for the guard and villain was, in a word, uneventful. But then again, the word searching implied that an actual effort towards attempting to locate something had been made.

Of course, Sen had made the upmost effort of doing this as the two moved through the museum halls and wings, diligently searching every corner and closet for any sign of a hiding guard or villain. He was methodical with his search as well, with him muttering under his breath as he mentally checked off locations he'd already searched to try and make said search as quick and efficient as possible. In a sense, doing what he was supposed to do.

Kyomu wasn't anywhere near as enthused as his friend was, nor was he nearly as active. The most effort he'd put in was lifting a trash bin to see if anybody was hiding in the trash. Other than that, he'd mainly just been following closely behind Sen as he himself searched everywhere while Kyomu's eyes and mind wandered, usually to some of the exhibits on display.

The focus of his attention at the moment? A spacesuit. Specifically, a very historically significant spacesuit that, if it weren't for the plaque sitting in front of it, anybody would have mistaken for a normal white spacesuit with a large, black, domed glass helmet.

"Huh. Hey, Sen," Kyomu called, "did you know this spacesuit was the suit of the first hero in the world who went to space? Who woulda figured?" Certainly a fact he hadn't known. Nor was it one he was confident he'd ever use in life. But a random tidbit here and there was better than nothing.

Sen, for his part, wasn't quite as interested in the spacesuit as the black-haired teen. "Yeah, that's cool, man," he said. "I don't really care."

"Yeah, you'd think that Thirteen or somebody like that woulda been the one to go to space," Kyomu continued, utterly ignoring Sen as he stared down and read off the plaque. "Guess Thirteen just really loves the whole space theme thing. Probably 'cause of their Black Hole Quirk."

"Hey, Kyomu?" Sen called, finally turning around. "We're in the middle of something. We need to find the..." He cut himself off abruptly, looking down and heaving out a sigh. "Who am I kidding, we're not making any progress."

The sound of dejected footsteps slowly made their way to Kyomu's side until his bald companion was right there besides him, eyes now just as unfocused and dull as Kyomu's. He steadily looked at the spacesuit, whistling softly as he read the plaque in front of it.

"First space hero, huh?" he asked.

Kyomu nodded. "Yep."

"Cool." A solid ten seconds of silence passed. "Dude, this sucks."

"Yeah, I'm not really much of a space guy, either."

"No, not the s- I mean _this_!" Sen exclaimed, turning around and gesturing to their surroundings. "All this... this skulking around and searching and... and I don't know. This just isn't the glamorous hero work I thought we'd be experiencing."

Kyomu snorted. "What, did you think it'd all be exciting hero fights and media coverage and villain base assaults and all that?"

Sen shook his head. "No, I imagined a lot of boring days with a few exciting fights and rescues sprinkled through my whole career, but this is just... ugh. It's not my style." He slammed his back against the wall, looking down while crossing his arms. "This isn't the kind of hero work I wanted to become a hero for."

It was a fair enough assessment. This wasn't exactly the kind of hero work Kyomu was thrilled to be doing, either, and even less so considering he wasn't even allowed to fight the villain if they happened across him. But he'd been the one that had wanted a taste of the hero nightlife, and in doing so he'd strung Sen along. Half because he felt bad for his friend and wanted to help him with internships, and half because he hadn't wanted to go alone to his first intern. So a small part of him felt bad for seeing his friend go through this, admittedly light, suffering.

"So why'd you want to become a hero in the first place?" Idle talk was the best Kyomu could think of to salvage the situation, as the two just were not in the mood to keep searching after ten minutes of it. And the words Sen had said made Kyomu curious. "Must have had big dreams if this isn't glamorous enough for you."

"No, I didn't... heh." He chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't exactly have any lofty ideals or anything. I'm not like Midoriya or Bakugo, trying to become the next All Might or whatever." He paused, his head moving up to the ceiling. "It's nothing that special," he said. "My, uh, mom is Chinese. You know that?"

"Don't see how I could seeing as you've never mentioned it before," Kyomu noted. "So that makes you Chinese?"

Sen shook his head. "No, half. Kinda. So, my mother is Chinese only in blood; it was her parents that immigrated here, so she was born a Japanese citizen. My dad was Japanese. They, uh, split off or something before I was born, I dunno. She never talks about him." He shrugged. "Anyways, her parents came here because there were career opportunities here for their Quirks. More so than there was in China."

"Yeah, the Quirk restrictions in China make Japan's look lenient in comparison," Kyomu said. "Especially after that big weather crisis in Beijing forty years back. Guy saves hundreds of people with his Quirk from a storm and he gets executed for it because he wasn't a licensed hero."

One of the bleaker cases of unauthorized Quirk usage they'd read about during a lesson in class. One that had actually made national news and had caused quite and uproar in the Quirk activist community, but had otherwise died down after a time like most pieces of news. By Japan's standards, the man would have likely received heavy fines at the least and some jail time at the worst. Other countries like the US or UK would have likely let him off free with a stern warning. South America or Australia likely would have commended him. So it was, so it went.

"It's not ideal over there," Sen agreed. "Guess my grandparents thought the same thing, hence them coming over here. Job opportunities relating to Quirks isn't really as progressive as most of the rest of the world, but there's still a few here and there if you look hard enough. Eventually they found some work after fully settling here. My mom did the same- she can nullify kinetic energy applied to her if she focused on certain parts of her body, so she took up sewing at this fabric factory without having to worry about being hurt. I remember when I was a kid I kept saying I didn't know what to do, so she just said to do something I was good at."

He looked down at his hands. "I'm good at a lot of stuff, but I don't exactly excel at anything," he continued. "I can punch really hard and defend against really hard hits. I just thought, I dunno, I have this power, right? Can't really use it for anything else but punching villains out or punching away the occasional bit of debris in an accident. So I thought I'd be a hero, be like All Might, and use one arm to punch out villains and the other to protect people. You know what I mean?"

Kyomu slowly nodded along. It was about a noble a reason as he'd heard from most other heroes who described their own origins. "Not the worst story in the world," he teased, nudging his friend with his shoulder. "Don't think it'll be making the top ten hero origin stories, though."

"Hah." Sen rolled his eyes in mock hurt, though mid-roll his irises stopped at his folded hands. He frowned, reaching into his pocket to pull out a small object: a pair of nail clippers. What followed was Kyomu shooting Sen a questioning look as he began clipping his nails.

"Uh..." Kyomu took a step back to avoid a flying piece of nail. "So you're- you're just gonna do that right now? In the middle of the museum?"

"I'll pick them up later," Sen grumbled. "Gimme a break. These things grow five centimeters a day. If I don't cut and file them all the time it gets really weird. The bald head gives me enough looks."

The curious look in Kyomu's eyes was replaced with a questioning one. "Okay. Why?" he asked.

The bald teen shrugged. "Don't know. Trait from my dad or something like that, probably. Deadbeat isn't exactly around for me to ask, and my mom won't say."

"Hm." Kyomu's eyes lingered on the other teen's fingers for a few seconds, and then wandered away. "Weird," he concluded.

"So what about you?" Sen asked. "Why'd you become a hero?"

"I don't like villains."

Sen's nail cutting ceased abruptly upon him hearing the answer, and how it had been such a succinct delivery compared to his own. "That's it?" he questioned.

"That's it," he echoed. "I don't like them. They should just disappear."

"Mm." Sen resumed his cutting. "Is it because of your brother?"

To his surprise, Kyomu shook his head. "My brother is an exception," he answered. "He's the one villain in the whole world I will tolerate above all others."

Orange eyes scrunched in confusion. "Even after everything he did to you?" The answer was so unexpected that Sen had missed one of his nails when attempting to clip them. "The whole stabbing you thing? The whole killing your parents thing? You're in an orphanage because of that guy." He shook his head. "I would have figured you'd hate him above everybody else."

"What my brother did..." Kyomu stopped himself, rethinking his words before trying again. "I can't bring myself to hate him," he said. "I know it doesn't make much sense, considering the circumstances. If our positions were reversed, Sen, I'm sure I would be feeling just as much confusion as you are right now. It's just not something I can put into words."

That was, of course, a lie. Kyomu could very well put his feelings into words if he really wanted to. They would be very incriminating words, but they would be words nonetheless.

Fortunately enough Sen seemed to accept it and leave the matter at that. Coincidentally, heavy footsteps down the hall announced the arrival of their hero shadow, who seemed particularly disgruntled. "You two find anybody?" he asked as he lumbered closer to them.

Kyomu was the first to respond. "Nah, nothin'." He shook his head.

"Hm." Null-man began stroking his chin. "That just leaves the main atrium in the northern section of the museum."

"That largest, most open room in the whole place?" Sen asked. "Yeah, I guess he could be there. If not, then I guess he'd already be gone."

And thus, it was a unanimous, unspoken agreement that the three of them would make their way to the northern atrium to try and apprehend the villain if he really was there. Words on the way there were far and few in between, mostly due to the hero's own likely frustration at the situation and the two students' frustration over this whole internship. The silence was broken when Null-man began actually speaking.

"You know, used to be I had this partner. If he were here we would have already found the villain," he said. "Must have been... what, twelve years now since he died? Maybe eleven? Somewhere around there."

"Oh, yeah?" Hands were lackadaisically clasped behind Kyomu's head as he glanced at the hero from the corner of his eyes. "Was he just really good at tracking, or was it a Quirk?"

"Quirk," he answered immediately. "Ah, good old Forehearing. Both his hero name and his Quirk. He could probably hear two particles of dust rubbing together from five kilometers away if he really focused. He'd have already heard this villain by now and pointed out where he was if he was still alive and here."

Kyomu's brow furrowed. _"Forehearing..."_ There was something in that name that evoked a feeling of familiarity inside of him. It was only after a few minutes of searching through his memory did he realize what it was he was recognizing. "Oh, I think my mom actually knew that guy," he said. "Said she used to work with him a bunch before he died. Back when she was a hero." He paused to think some more. "Yeah, I... think he used to actually patrol my neighborhood most nights. Huh."

It was a shame he'd died a year or two before _that_ night had happened, a sentiment that Kyomu was painfully aware of. He might have been able to do something if he'd heard his mother screaming. Maybe arrive to stop the villain before Kyomu had done anything.

Null-man's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? Small world," he remarked. "Yeah, but it was a real shame what happened to him with that vehicular accident."

There were minute muscle twitches in Kyomu's face as his head turned slightly to the older man. "How'd he die again?" he questioned.

"Drunk driver," the hero answered. "Old lady in a wheelchair was in the middle of the road, so Forehearing had to dive in to save her. Got wounded doing so, died in the hospital. Ironically enough the woman he saved died in the same hospital a week later. Old and and heart complications or something, I think." He shook his head. "Tragic incident. He had a bright future and career ahead of him. Could have saved a lot more lives."

Kyomu was silent, breathing sharply out of his nose as he turned away from Null-man. _"Yeah, good for him. Real nice."_ Bitter emotions began to well in his as his fingers audibly tightened behind his head. _"Sacrifice your life to save some old hag that just kicked the bucket later anyways. How_ virtuous _of you."_

The embitterment he felt was pushed towards the back of his mind as the three approached the double doors leading to the main northern atrium of the museum. Null-man had wasted no time in stepping in front of the doors and pushing them open in an overly dramatic fashion, with the two interns close behind him.

The atrium was impressive enough. Large, open room with exhibits all around, mostly towards the room's walls. The ceiling, unlike the rest of the museum, was a large, glass covering with moonlight filtering through the glass and few clouds passing overhead, giving the room a fair amount of lighting. And the other end of the room was three steps leading up to an elevated section that had a large, ornate painting hanging on the wall facing them.

There was also a man standing right in front of it staring owlishly at them. And Kyomu was fairly certain security guards didn't dress in white hoodies and sweatpants.

"Ah, shit," he cursed, brushing a few locks of dark blue hair past his pale face. White, barely visible mist could be seen slowly seeping out from his mouth with each breath. "Thought I had more time before a hero got here. The hell?"

 _"What's his deal?"_ Kyomu's eyes narrowed as he examined the villain standing a good twenty meters away from them. Besides him, Sen went into a similar state of analysis. _"He's got frost clinging to his hands and forearms. Looks like the air he's breathing is frozen, too. Definitely an ice user, which fits the description. What are the specifics of his Quirk, though? Won't be safe to approach him until-"_

"Stand back, boys." Null-man thrust his hand out in front of the two, stepping forwards himself rather boldly as he fixed his eyes on the villain. "This is the part where you watch and learn how a real hero does it."

Sen looked up at the hero with a concerned look in his eyes. He'd opened his mouth to try and talk to the hero, though Kyomu had placed an arm on his shoulder to stop him while shaking his head. "Nah, let him go," he said. "He's the big hero. He'd got this."

"Yeah, but..." The bald teen looked unsure of himself as he looked between the villain and the hero. "Are you sure we should let him go by himself?"

"We can't even legally attack the villain since Null-man's already dealing with him." The hero was already halfway towards the villain via a confident swagger he'd adopted when he'd began to approach the villain. The ice user, for his part, just look confused as his eyes followed the hero. "Guy'll be fine."

Null-man had reached the steps leading up to the raised section the villain stood at, who still stood still in complete bafflement at the hero. He'd slowly reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a pair of handcuffs, swinging it slightly between his hands. Kyomu saw that, for just a split second, a soft blue glow flashed over the metal of the cuffs as he presented them to the villain.

 _"He imbued the handcuffs,"_ Kyomu thought. _"So how's he gonna get them on?"_

"Okay, villain. This can go an easy way, and a hard way," Null-man announced as he brought the handcuffs up. "You can let me put the handcuffs on, or I can force them on."

The hero was given a baffled look by the pale villain as he looked between him and the handcuffs in his hands. Both Sen and Kyomu had fully expected him to put up a resistance and start flaring ice powers in retaliation. In reality, he'd just formed a mirthful smirk as he freely held his wrists out.

"Sure thing," he said. "I didn't account for fighting a hero. Not really much of a fighter. 'Sides, they give you a lighter sentence if you go willingly, right? Just hurry up and take me to the police. I ain't got all night."

"He... gave up?" Sen's shoulder slumped in disbelief as he stared at the two adults ahead of him and his friend. "Wow, that's just... anticlimactic. Seriously?"

Kyomu hummed in agreement. He'd watched as Null-man had carefully fitted the handcuffs around the villain's wrists, his eyes as well as the hero's watching the villain diligently for any signs that he would suddenly attack. He gave none, though, and just helplessly smiled as the cuffs finally clamped around his wrists. Null-man himself had breathed a sigh of relief once the cuffs snapped shut.

 _"Guess... that's that,"_ Kyomu concluded with several blinks of his eyes. The experience as a whole was, in his opinion, completely underwhelming. He'd expected at least some excitement, maybe at the very least a punch thrown or two. Villains he'd fought had always either fought back or, rarely, tried to run from him. None of them ever just... resigned like that almost immediately. _"Guess he's not much of a villain after all."_ He shrugged, taking a few steps forwards. _"Geez. All this time spent for-"_

His thoughts had been cut off as he slipped on the floor. He been quick to right his footing and stop himself from falling over, but he'd made pause upon hearing the particular sound he'd created when he'd slipped on the floor. A loud, high-pitched squeak with a wet undertone that was completely out of place in an otherwise dry environment. Museums tended to keep their exhibits dry. And he wasn't anywhere near a water fountain.

 _"What the...?"_ He looked down at his feet. Scattered around in a small pile was, for lack of a better term, snow. Oddly colored snow as well, varying in shades of white, red, dark blues and blacks. _"What, did he spill a snow cone or something on the way in here? The hell. Who brings a snack when breaking into a mu-"_

His foot brushed up against something solid. Pupils rapidly darted towards the object, and then promptly saw that it was not snow or a lump of ice but was, in fact, a severed hand. A hand completely frozen over and blistered, with icicles hanging out from the large, open wounds.

 _"Oh,"_ he realized. _"The security guard."_

At the same time Kyomu had seen the hand, Null-man had turned around to face the two teens with a look of complete satisfaction on his face. He'd even gave them a thumbs-up with a big, large grin on his face, and looked ready to say something to them to boot. And then there was a loud snapping sound, and Null-man's body locked up as the villain crept right behind him and placed his hands on his shoulders. Broken handcuffs laid at his feet.

"Interesting fact about metal. Metal, especially the shitty pig iron you use to make those cuffs, constrict and become brittle when exposed to extreme cold," The villain softly whispered. Null-man didn't respond, as mouth was frozen open in a perpetual, silent scream as his body rapidly shriveled and froze over. "I know all about you. Null-man. You think I'm so much of an amateur that I wouldn't look up the local beat heroes before I cased a joint? Knew all I had to do was break those cuffs to get the drop on you."

Sen's eyes slowly widened in horror as he took a step backwards. Kyomu's, conversely, hardened as his hands started to slowly flex at his sides, black wisps slowly flowing through his fingers.

"My Quirk, Diamond Dust, reduces anything I touch to near absolute zero temperature. You nullified my Quirk, but the ambient temperature leftover on my arms was more than enough to break those cuffs. Shoulda seen it comin'." The villain took his hand off the hero's shoulder and punched forwards. His fist went right through the hero's chest, causing frozen blood to spill out like snow pouring from a bucket. Null-man's body promptly then crumbled into frozen dust. "Pro? Gimme a break."

He fixed his icy eyes on the two students across the room once he'd finished killing the hero. He took one step forwards after another, slowly smiling as he splayed his hands out to the side. Heavy amounts of frost was slowly floating around his digits. "And what do we have here?" he muttered. "You both look WAY too young to be a couple'a pros. You're, what, some shadow students? How'd the geezer actually get any interns?" He shook his head. "Whatever. I got shit to steal. Witnesses complicate things."

"Sen!" Kyomu made the decision to go on the defensive, jumping backwards to create distance between him and the villain. He looked towards his friend for support, but to his surprise he saw his friend's back rather than his side. And worse yet his back was retreating. "Sen!?"

No sooner did he shout his name a second time than the door leading back into the hallway they'd come from slam behind Sen.

The teen turned his head back to the villain, and then became immediately startled when he saw the villain was standing right in front of him. He scraped his hand in front of him in defense, creating a black smear floating in the space between them. Shocking still was when a pale hand pierced through the darkness and grabbed Kyomu's right forearm, rooting him in place and causing the black tear to disappear.

"Where you going?" the pale man asked. "We ain't done-"

Whether he'd expected it or not, Kyomu had punched the pale man with his free hand right in the middle of his face. He let out a cry of pain with blood streaming freely from his face as he recoiled back, letting Kyomu's arm go and letting the teen retreat away from the villain.

And then he'd turned around and ran right out the same door Sen had before the villain had a chance to recover.

* * *

There were so many downsides to how the evening was going that Kyomu could barely count them. If he tried really hard he could, of course, but the mental processing power needed to accomplish such a task was better left to more important things. Like figuring out what he was supposed to do with the villain in the atrium.

On the upside he'd found Sen sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall not too far into the west wing of the museum. Just staring straight into the wall ahead of him with a blank look on his face. There was one problem accounted for.

"Really glad you had my back over there buddy," Kyomu grunted as he knelt down next to Sen, pressing his own back against the wall besides him. "Seriously, what the hell was that?"

He wasn't completely upset his friend had all but abandoned him. A little upset, maybe, but as long as there was a good explanation behind it Kyomu could be understanding. Probably.

Sen didn't respond at first. He'd simply let out a shaky breath while moving his head slightly to meet Kyomu's eyes, and then shook his head. "He just... died, man," he whispered. "Null-man, he... he just got flash-frozen and crumbled to dust. Took, like, five seconds." He rubbed a hand across his forehead. "I knew villains get be this bad, man, but he just... he killed him. I-I-I don't know, man, I panicked."

"Oh." Kyomu nodded his head in understanding. That was probably the first time Sen had ever seen somebody murdered in person. No, from the look on his face, it was for sure the first time he'd seen something like that. His own reaction to seeing death hadn't been much better, but at the time he'd been four. A four-year-old with a much too mature mindset for his age.

Come to think of it, this was probably a very appropriate response Sen was having. But now wasn't the time.

"Okay, Sen, listen to me." He clamped a hand on the bald teen's shoulder, which thankfully was enough to get his attention. "We just saw a man get... I don't even know what to call what happened to him. He got frozen and crumbled to pieces. In a hour or two he's gonna melt and the floor's just gonna be a mess. It's tragic and traumatic, I get it, but I need you to focus here, man." When Sen didn't respond, he shook him. "Hey, you wanna be a hero, right? Guess what, this stuff? It's not- it's not commonplace in the hero world, but chances are we were gonna see something like this sooner or later. They warned us right in the gate in hero class."

"... Yeah. Yeah, I- yeah." He gave a jerky nod after a few quiet moments, slapping his own hand on Kyomu's shoulder while looking him in the eyes once more. "Yeah, this is... the reality of the world, I get it. It's why heroes like us are around, right? To beat the bad guys up so they can't do stuff like that to people." He gave a weak smile. "Thanks, man. You're... really amazing right now, you know that? Here I am freaking out and you're all calm and cool."

Maybe it was the fact he was used to seeing death. More likely it was because he hadn't cared that much for Null-man. Probably both, if the black-haired teen was being completely honest with himself. But either answer as one that Sen likely wouldn't have found too favorable, so Kyomu just nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, I'm awesome," he said. "But I need you to focus now, Sen. There's a villain in that atrium and I'm down an arm here. Really need your help here."

"Down an arm?" Sen tilted his head. "What do you- oh!"

His eyes were immediately drawn to Kyomu's right side, and then to his arm. A layer of ice completely surrounded the appendage, freezing it solid and rendering it immobile.

Kyomu moved it up and down. The arm remained rigid. "Yeah, he managed to grab me," he explained. "Reached right through one of my portals. Shoulda used an unstable one. Could have gotten rid of one of his arms."

"He reached through your portal?" Sen asked. "How could he do something like that? Shouldn't he have froze?"

"Hmm..." The other teen leaned his head back and closed his eyes in thought. "He said that Quirk of his could freeze stuff to near absolute zero temperature. Diamond Dust," he said. "If that's true, his body would have to harden itself to that kind of extreme temperature just so he could handle his own Quirk. If that's the case, he would be well accustomed to Void's lack of temperature, at least for a short while. Same is true for me." He shook his frozen arm once more. "I can still feel the arm, but there's no pain. I just can't move it because the ice is holding all my muscles in place. Void is so cold that my body had to adapt to those temperatures. It's the same reason Todoroki doesn't melt whenever he lights half his body on fire."

"But... wouldn't the blood still freeze and cause, I dunno, complications?" Sen asked. "I mean, it's mostly water, right? So how does-"

"Sen, I don't know," Kyomu interrupted. "Why don't my portals suck anything in since I'm essentially creating an entrance to a vacuum? Quirk logic, man. Don't question it." He shook his head. "We're getting off topic. We gotta deal with that guy."

The other teen leaned his head back in surprise. "Deal with him?" he repeated. "We can't deal with- Kyomu, he's a villain! We're not even legally allowed to fight him!"

"Can if it's self-defense," Kyomu argued.

"No, we can't. We already successfully ran away." He pointed a thumb down the hallway. "We don't even have a provisional license. Most we can do is go to the lobby, find a phone, and dial some more heroes and let them deal with it."

"Cool plan, Sen, but there's a big issue with it." The Void user nodded his head to the atrium doors. "There's only one way outta that atrium, and that's through those doors over there. Emergency exit is in the east wing, not the west, so to leave he'd have to come down this hallway and into the lobby where we'd have to wait. Because for all we know he's five seconds away from leaving this place, and the heroes won't be able to get here in time to stop him." He stood up onto his feet and stepped in front of Sen. "So we either do that or go back in there and beat him down to avoid him getting loose and hurting anybody else."

Disbelief flashed through Sen's features as he looked up at Kyomu, followed by thoughtfulness as he looked down to the floor while shaking his head. Kyomu stood idly by, nervously glancing between his friend and the atrium door. He wasn't exactly wrong in his logic for the villain's possible actions, but most of that logic was born mostly at a desire for him to catch that villain. The mere thought of him getting away, even if they did everything correctly legally, irritated him to no end.

So he'd deal with the villain. Afterwards they could try to spin something in their defense and get away without and legal issues. But that could only be done with Sen's help. If he said no, Kyomu would resign and follow his friend's plan, not matter how much it would pain him to do so. So it was when Sen let out a resigned breath did Kyomu feel himself grow slightly elated.

"Yeah, fine," he muttered. "You're right. That guy... not telling what he'll do. And we're essentially boxed in with him unless we call the heroes and run away. But if we do that he'll probably run and get away, so..." With a sigh, he rose up to his feet. "Alright. Let's go get him. Even if it is a terrible idea."

"It'll be fine," Kyomu assured. "Don't worry."

Sen rolled his eyes. "Way to late for that," he said. "Speaking of ideas, you have any? 'Cause I'm drawing a blank here on what to actually do."

"I..." Kyomu paused, and then moved his head behind Sen. An idea struck him. "I actually got one, yeah," he said, pointing to the object of interest. "What do ya think?"

He turned around. His posture nearly completely deflated once he caught on. "You're kidding."

"Nope."

"Agh... think it'll fit me?"

* * *

Once again, Kyomu had found himself entering the museum's atrium- making sure to skirt around the pile of frozen guard this time around- in the hopes that the villain was still there. He wasn't too surprised to find him still there, his back turned to Kyomu with his front completely focused on the painting at the other end of the room. A long, hollow, silver tube laid at the side of his feet as he carefully attempted to take the painting down from the wall.

 _"A painting thief, huh?"_ Kyomu thought. _"Huh. Looks like he isn't even worried about us. Guess I'm not too surprised, especially with a Quirk like that. Two teens are probably nothing. Probably why he's being so careful with that painting, too; likely trying to avoid damaging it with his mere touch."_

He was still at it, too, with the painting only halfway off the wall. He would only touch the painting for a certain length of time as well, and then promptly let go to wait a few seconds before going back at it. His Quirk was most assuredly off, else the painting would be in pieces by now, but there was still frost clinging to his hands and hanging in the air around him. Seemed even when turned off his body was unnaturally cold.

 _"Hope Sen can get in place in time."_ The teen flexed his left arm. The right still encased in ice, hung limply at his side. _"Just gotta get that villain in a good spot."_

There were multiple ways of grabbing his attention, from shouting at him to opening a portal behind his head and punching him hard enough to knock him out. He had no idea what extent of control the villain had over his Diamond Dust, though. For all he knew he could activate it instantly and freeze his fist the moment he made contact even if he was unaware. A risk he was unwilling to make. So instead he'd opened a portal next to the silver cylinder on the ground and stole it.

The villain froze, letting go of the painting to look down at the vacant floor. He then slowly turned around towards Kyomu, who was grinning cheekily while tossing the cylinder up and down in his free hand. "You lost something." He caught the cylinder and crushed it between his fingers. The pale villain visibly flinched when the teen dropped the unrecognizable metal object on the ground. "Hope you didn't need it."

"... Dick move, kid." The villain slowly began walking towards Kyomu. "You know how cold my hands are? Can't exactly carry that painting around. And I sure as hell can't just stuff it in a backpack."

"So you really are a thief, huh?" Kyomu scoffed. "You killed two people over a painting? Seriously?"

"Hey, guy's gotta eat. And employment opportunities for villains come real slim these days." The villain shrugged, but then froze midway and leaned in closer. "Come to think of it... you look kinda familiar, kid. Met another kid that looked just like you on my way out of the joint. Had white hair and red eyes, though."

Kyomu's eyes narrowed. "Probably my brother," he airily replied. "What, he mess up the prison on his way out and you just slinked out during all the chaos?"

"Ah, we actually helped each other out a bit on our way out the clink. Cool guy, your bro." There was an almost wistful look on his face as his features slacked, as if remembering the moment. In less than a second his features snapped to a manic one and he sprinted towards Kyomu, frost falling off his arms. "Too bad his bro's a goody two-shoes pansy!"

The villain began to approach at a rapid rate. Kyomu, for his part, stood completely still in the middle of the atrium as the pale man came closer and closer. It was only once the villain's feet ran past the moonlight being shown down from the moon above did he raise his unfrozen hand and snap his fingers.

 _Shatter!_

The ice user skidded to a halt as his head whipped upwards. Black tears in space had appeared between the glass ceiling in the middle of the atrium, completely shattering it and causing sharp shards of glass to fall down on the pair of them. The villain's reaction was to raise his hands to cover his head while he backpedaled away from the falling shards.

He was stopped short when he felt a stabbing sensation in his back. He screamed out loud, leaping away as he felt something tear down his back as he escaped, only to feel more shards of glass rain down on him.

"The hell!?" His face turned into a pained grimace as he stepped back from the black portal that had opened behind where he'd stood. A hand holding a long, bloody shard of glass stepped out, with another portal appearing over Kyomu to catch any glass that would fall on him. The glass in his hand soon crumbled away from the cold it'd been exposed to in its brief contact with the villain, freeing his hand. "You... you stabbed me! What the hell!?"

 _"If I had it my way, this guy would already be dead."_ Kyomu's face showed little emotion as he slowly stepped towards the villain, who now kept one hand on his bleeding back while maintaining and equal distance from Kyomu. The blank look alone was enough to set the villain off from Kyomu, never mind the wound he'd sustained. _"Sen's here, though, and I can't do something like that in front of him. Even if he wasn't, me interning with Null-man is on record. They'd want to know where the villain is, and him just disappearing looks too suspicious, especially with my Quirk. Too risky. Too many ways it can be traced back to me. Gotta do things by the book this time."_ He glanced up. _"Speaking of Sen..."_

There was a human figure standing above them at the edge of the now-open roof window. The figure gave a thumbs-up, prompting Kyomu to snap his fingers and create a portal right below them, as well as a portal so high in the sky it was barely visible. The figure then jumped through the portal below them, and Kyomu had just enough time to spot the figure dropping through the high-up portal before he had to dodge a hand swiping at him.

Swipe after swipe was sent at Kyomu, who jumped away from each one. No matter how many times the villain rushed him, he'd either dodge out of the way or open portals to step behind to the villain. But as things were, nobody was slowing down in their movements.

That was until, of course, they heard the screaming.

"AAAH!"

The villain was the one to look up this time. His mouth opened slightly in confusion, and then dropped completely when he saw just what it was dropping in from the ceiling: a man in a spacesuit. The shock of seeing such a confusing sight was so confounding that he only reacted when the suited person touched down on the ground with their left hand extended, landing perfectly on their palm. Immediately following this was a blinding amount of orange electricity that arced brightly through the left arm and quickly jumped to the right.

Blinking and shaking his head, the pale man turned away from the suited person and Kyomu and ran forwards, away from the two. His path was blocked promptly by a black portal that opened in his path. Even more startling was the fact that the suited person had disappeared from his peripheral view.

That was as far as his thought process had taken him before a suited fist shot out of the portal and punched the villain right into his stomach.

He gasped silently out, his body practically rippling from the shockwaves reverberating through his body. It seemed that, for just a brief moment, he'd been suspended in that state before his body was flung backwards from the sheer force used to punch him. His body had flowed halfway across the room before a black portal opened up in his flight path. Kyomu had jumped up and out the portal, spinning with his leg out before it made contact with the back of the villain's head. The pale man had released one more gasp, audible this time and notably pained, as his body continued to fly in the same direction but was now spinning uncontrollably. This continued until he hit the wall a good half meter away from the painting he'd been attempting to steal, and then fell to the ground.

Both Kyomu and the suited Sen remained completely still as they cautiously watched the body. There were still movements to indicate breathing, but after thirty seconds it was evident he was either unconscious or too wounded to move. Breathes of relief escaped the two before Kyomu fell down into a sitting position while Sen began to fumble with his suit.

"Gah! Man, we did it." His tone was one of complete disbelief as he tore the domed helmet off of him and set it down close to his feet. "We- we did it, dude. We beat a villain. A super legitimate hero-killing villain." His features practically began to glow. "We actually took down a real villain!"

"Yeah, tell me about it." Kyomu's demeanor was noticeably more subdued. He rested his slowly thawing arm on his thigh, breathing a heavy sigh as he shook his head. "I'm just glad that spacesuit let you survive in Void for a bit," he muttered. "That was a pretty cool punch."

"Totally." The last of the spacesuit was pried off the bald teen as he sat down next to Kyomu. "You knew that was gonna work, right? The spacesuit plan?"

"... Of course." The hesitation in Kyomu's response caused the narrowing of Sen's eyes. "Phone's in the lobby, right?" he asked. "Should call those heroes."

Sen maintained his glare, but eventually nodded. "You're right," he said. "You know the number, right?"

"I'll just call the cops. They'll know what to do." Blue eyes lingered on the villain's body, and then looked over to the floor near them where the red and white, frozen remains of a hero laid. A small, distressed noise to quiet for Sen to pick up escaped his throat, and his fingers twitched as Void flowed between his fingers. He shook it off, though, and rested the hand atop his knee. "Sooner they get here to take care of that useless trash over there, the better."


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N- Yeah, I'm super late in my poorly-defined and practically non-existent schedule. Sorry about that.**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 21- The Hero-Killer and the killer hero**

* * *

There wasn't a lot of days the bar felt so tense. Wasn't many nights, either, now that Hikari thought about it. It was an overall relaxing environment twenty-four/seven in the bar the League of Villains called a headquarters, barring the unusual call from TV Man here and there.

This was one of those tense days.

Hikari sat to the side of the main bar, hunched over in his stool as his index finder idly tapped on the wooden bar he leaned on. Shigaraki sat in front of the bar, with his back facing the rest of the room. The only missing person was Kurogiri, who was gone to fetch what Shigaraki was hoping to be their newest member to the League. He hadn't hesitated a single second once they'd located the Hero-Killer skulking on a rooftop in some city- Hosu, if Hikari recalled.

"You seem nervous over there, Shinka." Shigaraki's hand-covered face turned in his direction. "Something the matter?"

"The matter? Nah. Nothing's the matter." With his cheek resting on his free hand, Hikari moved his head slightly to meet his leader's eyes. "Not like you're about to enlist a confirmed serial killer or anything. Nope. Nothing to worry about there."

Shigaraki remained motionless. It was hard to make out his expression from the hand on his face and the bangs of light hair covering his eyes, but from his overall posture Hikari could assume he wasn't too amused. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you too well," he muttered. "I know you're not too happy with this decision. Kurogiri told me all about your conversation with Master."

For somebody that, for all Hikari didn't know, have lips, Kurogiri had a loose pair on him.

"Master?" Hikari asked, shifting his cheek to his other hand. "You mean TV Man? Sensei?"

Shigaraki nodded. "Yes, him," he confirmed. "All For One."

"All For One. Right." The teen rolled his eyes. "For such a mysterious guy, he sure does have a lot of titles."

"All For One is his true name."

White eyebrows rose in surprise. "Course it is. Wow. I'm not gonna ask the story behind that name." His eyes flicked over to the TV at the back of the room that displayed "audio only" on a purple display. If All For One was listening to their conversation he wasn't making any mention of it, though considering how much of an important moment this was to both Shigaraki and the League he was without a doubt there.

Wasn't creepy at all, the way he just... eavesdropped on everything that happened in the bar. But if Shigaraki was fine with it, Hikari could overlook it for the most part.

"So how'd you hook up with a guy like him anyways?" Hikari asked. "The whole student-mentor relationship you have going on. How in the world did that occur?"

Shigaraki shifted in his seat. "Well that's rather rude, asking something that's so private" he said. "We've only been working together for such a short time. Only gone on a single, botched mission. And you performed to the best of your abilities, of course, went above and beyond and all that... but I just don't know if I can connect with you on such a personal level at this juncture, Shinka." The corners of his face lifted in what Hikari assumed to be a small grin. "Tell you what, though. Tell me why you killed your parents, and I'll tell you."

"No thanks," the teen responded immediately. That wasn't a road he wanted to go down at all- at least not until he had to, at which point he'd have to make up a convincing lie. But he'd hold out as long as possible in that regard.

The response to his blunt reply was a throaty laugh from the villain. "See, that's the problem. We just don't trust each other with personal issues. Ah, but maybe one day." He began to drag a finger across the bar counter. "Just makes me wonder is all. They must have done something pretty terrible to you and your brother if you snapped at them almost the same moment you got your Quirk. What other reason would you have had? Your brother doesn't even hate you for it since he'll talk to you. Makes me wonder..."

"... Keep guessing, Shigaraki," Hikari mumbled.

"Tch. You're no fun." The bar darkened slightly. Two pairs of crimson eyes flashed over to the other end of the bar, where a dark portal of swirling mist had opened up. "Kurogiri's back," Shigaraki announced. "Looks like he brought the guest of honor with him."

The large, misty portal soon shrunk down and shaped itself into the familiar, man-shaped form of Kurogiri as two solid, yellow eyes settled around where his face would be. He calmly walked over to his usual position behind the bar, leaving behind a second body Hikari was completely unfamiliar with. It was this one he kept a single intense eye on, as his back was to the new figure and his was turned just enough to get a good look at him.

A man of medium height, well-built and seemingly perpetually hunched over. His own pair of red eyes that matched his crimson garb that was almost a twisted mockery of military garb swept over the bar, landing on the three villains and the TV before he continued to examine.

 _"Stain, huh? Well, he doesn't look unhinged. Good enough of a start, I suppose."_ Hikari's eye traveled along the man's body, and at the multitude of knives and swords he had strapped to him. _"Eh, pretty sure he's not unhinged at any rate."_

He let out a humming noise and turned his back to the Hero-Killer to lean over the bar counter. As far as he was concerned, this was Shigaraki's show. Both Kurogiri and All For One made that obvious enough the last time they talked. Doubtful that they would appreciate him intervening too much unless directly involved.

"Hmph. For a League, you're not sporting too many members." Something about the way Stain's voice sounded grated Hikari's ears. Scratchy and deep, as if broken by overuse and strain on his vocal cords. "A transporter, a faceless observer, a leader who looks barely older than a child..." Hikari felt eyes on his back. "And the Villain of Light of all people as well. Surprised someone like you is in a place like this. What's your purpose for being here?"

"Kurogiri's just here to bring you, and you don't have to pay the TV any mind. Your business is with Shigaraki," Hikari intoned. "I'm just the bouncer."

The man didn't respond verbally, and instead just silently turned his head away from Hikari's back to face Shigaraki. The teen considered himself relieved that the attention was off him. Being the center of that man's focus just made him feel unnaturally uncomfortable.

"Now I get it," Stain said. "You wanna recruit me to build up your little group after the stunt you pulled with UA. Is that right?"

Shigaraki shrugged. "Yeah. It'll be great. You've got so much experience."

"And what's your mission?"

"For now?" Pale, chapped hands began to root around in the owner's pocket. "I really just wanna kill All Might. I like to destroy anything that pisses me off. Like this little brat here. Game over."

He held up a few photos of UA students for Stain to see. The green-haired one, the one Hikari recalled being the one with the strong punch, was at the front. Shigaraki had a special amount of hatred for that one in particular, as he'd been extremely disruptive during their operation against UA. Apparently he'd even let out a lethal punch at Shigaraki that had to be blocked by Nomu.

Stain didn't respond at first, seemingly absorbing the words offered to him to mull them over. He couldn't see due to his back being turned, but Hikari imagined there was a very contemplative look on his face at the moment. The room was rather tense as they all waited for the killer's response.

"I was a fool to think you could offer me anything. It turns our you're the type of person I hate most in this world."

Said response had eventually come, and the tenseness began to exponentially grow.

"Huh?" The hand-wearing man seemed largely taken back by Stain's response from the genuine look of confusion in his eyes and the way his head tilted back. Kurogiri had even stiffened up after hearing Stain's words, the yellow lights making his eyes up becoming slightly larger. Hikari, for his part, began to drum his fingers nervously on the bar as a small ball of light slowly drifted between his fingers.

"The goals of your League are those of a child." The sound of blades slowly unsheathing could be heard. The image of all those knives the killer had came to Hikari's mind. "What meaning is there to killing if you don't have real convictions?"

Hikari felt that now was the time to step in.

"Take a single step forwards with those knives unsheathed and I'll floor you," he said. "You were invited, and came willingly. Attacking us over the mere _offer_ of having you join us is nothing short of a personal attack against the League, Stain." His fingers stopped drumming on the bar, though the teen's head remained forwards and away from Stain. "You wanna say something, say it to Shigaraki's face. Wanna leave? Kurogiri's standing right there." He paused. "Attack my leader or Kurogiri? You'll deal with me for the trouble."

"Master?" Looking the most unsure he'd ever been, which was quite a feat for someone who had no facial features, Kurogiri turned to the TV at the back of the room. "Should I step in?"

The TV's screen flickered. "Shinka." The aged, baritone voice that was somehow as playful as it was menacing resounded from the speakers. "What is it you hope to accomplish with the words you've just thrown at Shigaraki's guest?"

"I'm just defending my leader," he answered. "Final say in everything goes to Shigaraki, after all. I'm just warning him what happens if he tries it." Hikari's eyes trailed to the TV. "Unless you would have me stand aside? Shigaraki's a big boy. He can handle his own messes. I just don't think him getting stabbed is necessary to get the message of his failure across in case the worst happens." He shifted his head to rest it on an open palm. "Besides. Kurogiri'll get mad if blood gets everywhere."

If there was one thing Hikari feared above the serial murderer standing right behind him deciding he didn't like the League enough to attack, it was him overstepping his boundaries in front of them all. Those fears were at the forefront of his mind when the man behind the TV had asked him what it was he was doing the moment he threatened Strain. The killer was one thing- All For One was another entirely. It was what his very atmosphere implied. His mere existence promised unimaginable repercussions for wronging him dearly.

It was why, when All For One asked that of Hikari, especially right after their talk over Shigaraki's growth, Hikari had both feared he'd gone too and feared for his life.

"Heh heh heh." If he'd been holding his breath, the white-haired teen would have emptied both his lungs in an instant upon hearing that laugh. Fortunately, for appearance's sake, he looked as calm as ever. "Very well then. Continue. As long as Shigaraki is able to acknowledge his own successes, and failures, I won't stop you."

That was as far as the man got before the TV went silent. Hikari then looked over to Kurogiri, who seemed to nervously glance between the teen, the TV, and the killer in the back of the room before stepping back further behind the bar counter. Hikari then looked over at Shigaraki, who glanced at him and gave him a small nod before he turned back to Stain.

It was a good a sign as any that he had permission to attack if need be.

"You? Defeat me?" The amount of scorn in Stain's words was worthy of an eye-raise from the Light user. "A juvenile like you who killed without any reason as soon as he got his power. Someone who flaunts their abilities so recklessly has even less conviction than your immature leader sitting over there."

Hikari breathed in deep. Everyone's ignorance over the true events of that night was something he'd learned to cope with. Personal jabs like that, though, were extremely seldom in his until-recent isolation. It wasn't stabbing him with a blade, but to him, it was the next-worse thing.

"Hero-Killer Stain," Hikari muttered. "You've killed a bunch of heroes, sure. But I'm not sure you're all that," he said. "Especially with that Quirk of yours."

There was the slight sound of clinking metal. Like the knives he'd likely been holding in his hands lowered slightly. "What would you know about my Quirk?" Stain asked.

"Mm. I can make an educated guess." Hikari began to trace his index finger over the bar's counter. "I've seen the newspaper clippings. The pictures of the killed heroes, the way the environment looked. Every single time they were in a rather compromising position. Lying still on the ground with multiple cuts and fatal stab wounds with little damage to the environment around them. Why is that? There's plenty of heroes you've killed with destructive enough Quirks. How do you kill them so fast with so little damage to the surrounding area? Why do they always look like they wound up dead while so... helpless? Maybe you somehow freeze them in place. Maybe you need a catalyst for an ability like that. An... activation requirement. Maybe you got all those knives and swords because the catalyst is blood. Wouldn't surprise me; blood-activated Quirks are quite common from what I hear." He shrugged. "But hey, what do I know? I'm just some power-happy kid, right?"

What happened next was that Hikari heard a rapid set of footsteps. Footsteps that were so silent that he'd barely even heard them, which was especially surprising with his hearing. He didn't even have the reaction time necessary to make a single move before he saw a shadow holding a knife appear right in front of him, with the knife poised down on his neck. Kurogiri was frozen, and Shigaraki had even leaned forwards in an attempt to do something to stop Stain. But by that point the knife had been thrust down right at Hikari's neck.

The third to be surprised was Stain when the knife's tip stopped right above his neck, almost as if an invisible force was standing between the knife and the skin it was aiming at. The knife was then pressed down harder, revealing a thin, invisible film that shimmered white light that rested right above Hikari's neck.

"Hardlight." This time the teen did turn his head, enough that a single crimson eye was focused on Stain's own red eyes. "I've had this up from the moment you stepped into the bar. Without those blades and a Quirk you're just a normal man, Stain." There was a small _thump_ sound. Stain's head snapped downwards at the pale palm that had situated itself on his chest. "Surprised someone with a third-rate Quirk like that even got this far."

Before Stain could form any kind of response, a beam of white light shot out from Hikari's palm, blasting the killer all the way to the back of the bar. He made a soft grunting sound as his back impacted the wall, the knives slipping out from his hands as he slid down to the floor with a smoking scorch mark on the center of his chest.

"Call me power-happy again, and I'll do worse than knock you back to the other side of the room," the teen grumbled, turning back around and resting his arms on the counter. "I had more than enough reason to do what I did. A lot more reason than a guy that goes around killing two-bit heroes, at least."

If his little jab had any effect, it didn't show, as Stain continued to sit motionless against the wall. Some seconds passed, and Hikari and the other League members were momentarily worried that Hikari had gone too hard with his attack and had accidentally committed severe, if not fatal damage to the killer.

But then a small sound escaped his mouth. An amused sigh, followed by choked, throaty chuckling as Stain slowly righted himself onto his feet before crouching down to pick up his dropped blades. "The lackey has more conviction than the leader," he mumbled, more to himself than anybody else. "Further evidence that your League's ideals don't adhere to my own, Shigaraki. That child has purpose behind his power. For a single moment, I felt it. But you? You have no ideal behind your wish to kill All Might."

"An ideal?" Shigaraki scoffed. "I don't need something so grand as an ideal. I just want to kill that man and everything that stupid, smiling mug of his has built up around him. I want to wipe that smile off his face, and see the carefree society he built up crumble around him as the people are frozen in shock as they see their mighty Symbol of Peace dead."

"I see..." The blades in Stain's hands were sheathed. "We're idealistically opposed," he said, "but coming here wasn't in vain. We both agree that society needs change; that the present needs to be destroyed."

If the League leader agreed in any capacity, he didn't show it. He just turned his head away and waved his hand. "I'm over this. Leave. Drop dead. I'm the kind of person you hate most, right?"

"Hmph." Stain took a step backwards. When Hikari looked over his shoulder, he caught the killer's red eyes glaring at him momentarily before they fixed back onto Shigaraki. "It's abnormal, but there is desire. A warped sprout of conviction inside you. How will it bloom in the end, I wonder? Maybe I'll let you go, and if you don't turn out well I'll take care of you later."

"You think you could get rid of me?" Shigaraki almost sounded insulted by the words spoken from the way his entire body twitched. "Kurogiri, I don't want someone this crazy to be a party member."

"He did just try and stab all of us," Hikari added. "Gotta agree with our leader here. Stain's a liability."

All three League members looked over at the hero Killer. His arms were crossed, almost as if in waiting. The blades were indeed sheathed, though, and upon seeing it so the white light around Hikari's fingers dissipated. Shigaraki's fingers, likewise, stopped twitching.

"My business here is done," Stain said. "Return me to Hosu. There are still several false heroes I must attend to there."

The sight of him licking his mouth was a sight Hikari wished he could vacate from his memory. He feared it was there to stay, however.

Kurogiri seemed hesitant, but the sharp glare from Shigaraki was enough to get him to step out around the counter. He stepped between the other two League members and Stain, and then began to expand outwards and lose his bodily shape as the finely-dressed man from earlier was replaced by a dark, swirling warp gate.

"C'mon." Shigaraki tapped Hikari's shoulder with a single finger as he passed by him, causing the teen to slide off the stool and step towards the swirling black mass. They passed through without any pause, Hikari's sight briefly being hampered as bar around him disappeared.

It was always a peculiar feeling, passing through Kurogiri to warp somewhere. Like walking into a black fog so thick that not only could one not see, but not hear as well as any sounds were muffled from the transition. There was a certain, indescribable lurching sensation on the inside, as well. Similar to the kind of feeling one would experience if they underwent a sudden drop. If it weren't for the fact that there was always solid ground to walk on, Hikari suspected it would be a very disorienting experience.

But all this lasted for only a few moments, and ended with him and Shigaraki stepping out onto the top of a water tower on the rooftop of a building in an unfamiliar city. Hosu, most likely. Stain was already there, crouching on the edge of the water tower and looking down at the alley below.

"Huh, Hosu city looks nicer than I expected," Shigaraki noted as he fully stepped through. "So, what're you gonna do?"

"I will reform it," Stain answered in a simple tone. "In order to do so, blood must spill."

"You have a clear goal." Kurogiri had already shrunk down into his normal, human-shaped form. He'd even brought his suit over. "Your dedication is admirable."

"Ah, finally. Somebody who understands."

 _"Dedication towards killing people. Right."_ Rolling his eyes, Hikari looked to the side at the city. It was near the end of dusk, with the sun almost completely gone over the horizon. _"Guess I can't complain, though, what with me wanting to kill All Might,"_ he thought. _"We both want change. He's going about it differently, though. Why is that?"_

Killing All Might would have a big enough effect on hero society. It was basic enough logic that founded Hikari's reason for staying with the League. Killing high-up heroes, while not having quite the same amount of shock, could theoretically cause similar results. Stain wasn't going after those kinds of heroes, though: he went after small-time heroes, most of which Hikari had never even heard of until he saw their names in the obituaries. It seemed to have the opposite effect of what they were all trying to accomplish.

So what was the point in?

"Why kill all these no-name heroes?" Hikari asked. "If you really wanted to make a statement, you'd go after the bigger names like Endeavor, Jeanist, Edgeshot, maybe even that orca guy. Even some of the newer heroes like Kamui Woods who are already making names for themselves would have an effect. You're killing heroes, sure, and that's getting you the attention needed to spread your message, but that message doesn't have nearly the same impact when you're carving it into the bodies of nobodies."

"Because every hero you just listed, Shinka... well, _most_ , at any rate-" Stain's tongue darted out of his mouth, "- are true heroes. The one's I've killed are not."

Hikari frowned. "What makes the ones you've killed any different from the 'real heroes' then?"

"They're fakes!" Stain's voice had risen to a point that he was practically screaming. "'Hero' is a title for those who have accomplished great deeds! This city is full of false champions! All they care about is money and fame! Until this world realizes its mistakes... I will continue my work."

What followed next was him unsheathing his sword from the back and leaping off the water tower in an overly dramatic manner onto the roof below, followed by him jumping down into the alleyways and out of sight.

"There goes that guy," Hikari said. "Shame, too. He had red eyes just like me and you, Shigaraki. Coulda made a red-eyed trio out of the whole thing."

"Tch." Shigaraki craned his neck over to the teen. "Don't tell me you're gonna miss that psycho."

"No." He shook his head. "I won't. He has his way of going about change, and you have yours." His eyes trailed down to the alley where Stain had disappeared. "Besides. He's not gonna make any real change killing small-timers. Let him waste his time."

"You shouldn't spurn his methods." Both Hikari and Shigaraki turned towards Kurogiri, who had chosen at that moment to speak. "The reality is, in all the cities where Stain has appeared, the crime rate has fallen."

Hikari quirked an eyebrow in interest. Shigaraki, by contrast, began to scratch at his neck as his barely-visible eyes narrowed in Kurogiri's direction.

"Perhaps because heroes are more conscientious, or perhaps out of fear," the mist man continued. "Regardless, he does bring change."

There was a loud scratching noise as Shigaraki tore his hand away from his neck and turned around, almost as if in a fit of rage. "Oh, isn't that just _wonderful_? Heroes are working harder thanks to all those murders! I guess you could say our Hero-Killer is also a Hero-Breeder!" His arms slumped to his side, and then crossed. "This is getting boring. It won't work. We just can't agree on a basic level. And he annoys me." He paused. "Kurogiri, bring out the Nomus."

Hikari, who had remained silent during his leader's rant, twitched and went stiff as a dark warp portal opened just under the three of them on the roof below. _"Nomu?"_ he thought. _"_ The _Nomu? He... he has more of those things? And he's bringing them out here in the open!?"_

As he thought this, a large, pale, spindly arm pushed its way out of the portal and slammed down onto the roof. Its full body, a lanky pale man with an exposed brain just like the one Hikari had seen before, with four eyes on the brain, crawled through. Another pale Nomu, this one fitted with leathery wings on its back and wearing a mask, flew through and hovered above the pale one. A final Nomu, another dark an extremely muscled one much like the first Nomu they'd brought to USJ, lumbered on through. Only difference was that the only part of its head that remained was its lower aw and the brain nestled on top of it.

Overall, completely just as grotesque as the first Nomu had been, if not more so. And while Kurogiri was just silently looking down at them and Hikari maintained his gaze with a disgusted look in his eyes, Shigaraki just giggled at the sight of them.

"So... you have more than the first Nomu," Hikari noted.

"Tons more," Shigaraki confirmed. "We make them in bulk."

 _"That's... disconcerting,"_ he thought. "What do you plan on doing with these three, then?"

"Crush that Hero-Killer's stupid pride and honor. What else?" The villain spread his arms out wide to the city in front of them. "That guy thinks he's all that, huh? I'll show him up. Lofty ideals like his won't mean anything when real villains cause so much panic and mayhem that they won't have time to even think the name Stain." A widened red eye shifted over to Hikari's direction. "When I don't like something, I'll destroy it. Thought you of all people would have gotten that by now."

The teen cast a nervous look down at the Nomu below. They didn't look especially as dangerous as the first Nomu- but then again, he didn't look all that threatening as well, and he'd given All Might of all people a run for his money. Even if they weren't a tenth as strong as that one had been... well, that was still a lot of damage they could do. Fatal damage.

"You're just gonna sic those things on people over a grudge with the guy?" Hikari asked. "Shigaraki, that's-"

"We're villains, Shinka," the League leader interrupted. "The hell do you think we were gonna be doing? Charity work?" He turned his head around fully, his eyes narrowing. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts."

"... Of course not." A blatant lie. He was having seconds, thirds, and fourths. To many thoughts mixed together as he looked down at what was sure to be a massacre in waiting. Heroes dealt with villains. Villains, at the end of the day, were humans. Those things, though, were not human. Not anymore, at the very least- though Hikari liked to entertain the idea that these were just artificial humans and were not, originally, real people.

He somehow very much doubted that was the case.

Regardless, he had priorities to think of. One of them included him staying with the League to see his own goals through. Disobeying wasn't an option. So, rather timidly, he stepped aside from.

"Hmph." Satisfied, Shigaraki looked down at the Nomu. "Lighten up," he suggested. "We're about to be treated to a real entertaining show. You can't even pay for the kind of entertainment we're about to see."

Hikari said nothing.

* * *

By now it was nighttime based on how the sky looked from the broken window on the ceiling. Kyomu was hard-pressed to see any stars in the black sky, but at the very least it was dark enough for him to easily tell.

He couldn't say how many nights he'd spent sitting next to an unconscious villain. Dead ones, sure. Live, though, was relatively new. At the very least his arm had finally thawed out.

It'd been about twenty minutes since the the villain that used ice had been knocked out. Sen had went and called the proper authorities, and that just left the two to sit against one of the exhibits as they stared at the unconscious body. Kyomu had entertained the idea of breaking his limbs as he was sleeping; bonding would have been completely useless if he could just freeze them off, and they didn't exactly have anything stronger than handcuffs on hand. He'd decided against it seeing as there were likely laws in the way of preventing him from doing such a thing. As it was, he was already pushing said laws to a great extent as it was.

Good thing he didn't much care, otherwise he'd start to worry.

"Hey, Kyomu?" The teen turned his head. Sen, sitting next to him, was looking down at his wait in worry. "Your, uh, your coat. It's a bit shredded at the bottom."

Humming, Kyomu looked down. The very bottom of his jacket was, indeed, frayed all along the edge. Where was once a crisp, pristine line was now naught but jagged edged and even a rip near the end. He ignored it, though, instead waving a hand and looking up. "That happened at USJ," he explained. "I dunno, my brother clipped it with his Quirk or it got snagged on debris or something."

Sen blinked. "Then, uh... shouldn't you fix it?" he asked.

"Mm. As far as the support department knows, my costume is undamaged," he said. "When I'm done using it, I put it back in my locker. In fact, I don't even think anybody in the support class has seen my outfit."

The bald teen looked completely mystified at that. "Dude. Why?"

"I don't like the support department," Kyomu answered in a simple tone. "Always changing things with people's costumes, upgrading, adding additions left and right... I want my costume to be simple." He looked back down at the frayed edged as the bottom of the coat. "Besides. I kind of like the damaged look. Gives my costume history."

"But the department is supposed to upgrade our suits to be better heroes," Sen argued. "Don't you think-"

"I don't need any of that." Kyomu looked back up at the broken ceiling. "I don't _want_ any of that. I just need a costume, and that's it. I'd wear street clothing if they'd let me." He tilted his head to the side. "Hey, Sen?"

"Yeah?"

"You notice that the city's on fire?"

Sen's head snapped upwards. Though it was hard to see on the black background of the sky, there was indeed pillars of smoke rising in the air from the sides of the window. With Kyomu's eyesight, he could even see embers softly falling through the air in the wake of the smoke. And with his hearing he could hear the faint sounds of sirens and shouting.

Generally speaking these were bad signs. That was the conclusion Kyomu had reached, at the very least. And he was about to say something about it when he heard a small buzz.

The teen by his side had jumped a bit when he heard the buzz, and then had reached into his pocket. He then took out his phone and stared down at the screen. "Huh," was all he managed to say.

"What is it?" Kyomu asked.

"Midoriya sent me a message."

"..."

"..."

"... Well don't keep me in suspense, man. Tell me what it is."

"That's just it." Sen flipped the phone around for Kyomu to see. Instead of a message he just found a mixture of words and numbers. He quickly realized it was an address, and according to the map icon at the bottom-right of the phone screen it was an address to some alleyway. In Hosu, no less. "He sent it through the class chat, too. Why would he do something like that?"

 _"Alright, let's think."_ Humming once more, Kyomu rested his head back against what was surely an expensive exhibit. _"Midoriya's a logical guy. Doesn't do much without a good reason. Really, really doesn't seem like the kind of person to send random messages in the class chat room. In Hosu, of all places. While said city is on fire._

 _I could leave it alone, but, agh..."_ Kyomu looked back up. The pillars of smoke were growing larger. _"Yeah... I dunno. Seems a bit too coincidental. Should prolly go check it out."_

Making his decision, Kyomu rose to his feet. "Hey, buddy, I'm gonna go to that alley to check up and see what the hubbub is about," he said. "Watch the freeze guy over there 'til the heroes arrive for me."

Sen blinked his orange eyes owlishly up at Kyomu. Then he shook his head very quickly in refusal. "Dude, you can't do that!" he protested. "We gotta stay here to guard the villain!"

"Yeah, I know." A black portal appeared on the roof. "That thing you just showed me is really bugging me, though." Another portal appeared in front of Kyomu. "I'm just gonna go over there and check it out. You can watch the villain for me. Heroes'll be here in a minute or two anyways. It's fine."

As he walked forwards into the portal, actively ignoring the words of his friend as he went in, the thought of this being a completely irrational move on his part did cross Kyomu's mind. Leaving the scene of a crime with a villain in custody he had no right to be holding in custody, all for the sake of a phone message. But the context of there being a lack of context in a message from Midoriya who, by all rights, said nothing without context, bugged him too much to ignore.

Besides. His respect for hero and Quirk laws were squashed a long time ago. If anything legal flack came his way, he'd deal with it. Wasn't like he cared too much.

* * *

As it turned out, the city was, in fact, on fire. Hopping through portal after portal it was clear to see that the city of Hosu seemed to be, for whatever reason, under assault. A number of buildings were on fire, streets were crowded with panicking people running one way and police and heroes running the other, and there were even a few news copters flying overhead to cover the carnage.

Kyomu had almost assumed that, for whatever reason, there was a riot currently underway and law enforcement was coming in to subdue a crowd. But, when he'd jumped out of a portal only to grab onto and hand off the top of a light post with one hand, he saw what the problem was immediately: a winged, humanoid creature with an exposed brain wreaking mindless havoc all around it. Multiple heroes around it were trying and failing spectacularly to subdue it with various Quirks and capture equipment. If anything, they were making it even more angry.

 _"Looks like that Nomu thing All Might beat at USJ,"_ Kyomu noted. _"Looks like there's another one a few more blocks away with all the fire and screaming going on over there, and a third the opposite way. The League of Villains? Probably. Only connection between them all is the similar-looking thing they had back then."_ The winged creature had taken a hero in its talons and had slammed her against a building. She hit the ground, unmoving. _"The hell are these things, anyways? I thought the black one at USJ was just somebody with a really weird Quirk, but this is... huh. What was it Midoriya said...?"_

* * *

 _"'Specially-engineered human?'" The black-haired teen's tone was completely incredulous to the story Midoriya had just told him. The two were sitting next to each other at lunch, with the Void user slowly munching on a slice of watermelon as the shorter teen pouted up at him with a serious expression._

 _"It's the truth!" he said. "At least, that's what their leader said. That Shigaraki guy," he elaborated. "He said that thing, Nomu, was especially engineered to take on All Might. The fact he had multiple Quirks, well... it gives credence to what he said."_

 _Kyomu was already reaching for the second watermelon slice that happened to be on Midoriya's tray. He didn't even notice it was stolen, the guy was so lost in thought. "Multiple?" Kyomu asked as he bit down._

 _"He had a Quirk called Shock Absorption. It's how he was able to stay standing up to All Might's blows," he said. "He had a regeneration Quirk, too. Todoroki had frozen half his body, and his leg and arm fell right off only to grow back. His strength, too... it was almost on par with All Might's. There's no way that's natural, though... Mr. Aizawa wasn't able to erase his strength to help himself." His hands clenched on the sides of his emptying tray. "People only have one Quirk. Some have combination Quirks, like Todoroki, but not multiple. That's just impossible. He was telling the truth. Somehow the League of Villains can artificially insert Quirks into that thing."_

 _Midoriya's milk box in hand, Kyomu took a big sip as he shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "Seems far-fetched. Super-soldiers being bred or grown or whatever with multiple Quirks unnaturally put inside them?" He tossed the empty box over his shoulder. It flew tens of meters and landed in a disposal bin at the back of the cafeteria in a feat of superhuman accuracy. "Seems like somethin' out of a bad sci-fi movie. And I feel like the government would be all over something like that if it were actually possible."_

 _The green-haired teen shook his head. "Government weaponizing of Quirks isn't exactly something widely practiced," he said. "There's actually a whole bunch of UN laws prohibiting such a thing. Most Quirk research in the world mostly goes towards helping heroes develop or exploring new technological avenues for commercial and medical reasons. Very little of it goes towards weaponizing Quirks- especially at this scale."_

 _Kyomu rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess the big countries pointing nukes at each other for a war deterrent kind of kills any motivation to develop that area," he agreed. "I still think the whole Nomu thing sounds too unrealistic. Guy was a freak of nature and that's it. Don't worry too much."_

 _"I hope you're right, Shinka. I really do." A melancholic look overcame Midoriya's eyes as his head tilted downwards towards his food tray. They promptly snapped open when he saw it was empty. "Eh!?"_

* * *

 _"Okay, Midoriya, I take it back. Maybe you were on to something after all, because either Nomu had a freaky family of brain-exposed weirdos or there actually is some freaky science going on."_ An incoming, flaming car flying towards him prompted Kyomu to flip upwards and crouch on top of the street lamp as the car sailed right under him, only to then end up embedded in the side of a building. Amazingly, none of the heroes fighting the Nomu paid him any mind. _"Well, whatever. Not my problem right now; they can handle it. The alley. Gotta get to the alley."_

More portals opened up for him to hop through, leaving the fight behind him so that he could go to... whatever it was that was in that alley. Something Midoriya of all people thought was important. Better have been important, for all the effort he was going through in order to get to said alley. He was already looking at an earful from Sen for abandoning him to watch the villain alone. Maybe some from the cops, too, if they were mad enough about him running off like this. Problems for later.

A low sound in the distance had him skid to a halt on a rooftop. A block forwards, around where the alley he'd seen on Sen's phone map was located, was a giant pillar of ice rising between buildings. In the same direction were various sounds, as well. Thumps, clangs, and grunts- possible yells- that were muffled due to the distance. "More ice. Awesome," Kyomu groused. "Just my day, ice, ice everywhere... what's goin' on over there, anyways? That Todoroki?"

It took him but a few seconds to traverse the rooftops by walking through more portals until he was right on top of what was- presumably- the alleyway he was supposed to be looking for. Sure enough, he did he see Midoriya down there.

 _"Oh, wow, he's just... hopping off walls. Huh."_ He'd never seen Midoriya do something like that before- he was zig-zagging off of walls left and right, with sparks of green electricity arcing off of him. And he was heading right towards a red-dressed man. A red-dressed man with a sword in his hand. A sword that was pointed straight at Midoriya and was currently being thrust forwards at him.

That was about all the information Kyomu's brain managed to interpret before he'd automatically leapt through a black portal that opened in front of him.

* * *

Whatever bout was currently underway in the alleyway was abruptly cut off when a darkly-dressed teen had appeared right in front of the man with the sword. Midoriya had fallen to the ground the sight had been so jarring, with his body sliding to a halt as he looked up in shock. Further back in the alleyway, the fire and ice swirling around Todoroki dimmed down as he stepped back in a similar state of shock as Midoriya was in.

Kyomu, who from his position was directly facing the sword-wielding man, looked about as calm as could be, which caused the man in front of him to quirk his head to the side. "Well then," Kyomu spoke, looking down at the blade in his abdomen. "There are no words."

"You dove in front of the kid back there to try and block the blow." The grip on the sword's handle held firm as bloodshot, red eyes bored right into Kyomu's blue. "Brave, but also foolish. He could have easily avoided the blow on his own. You could have helped him if you'd actually waited a bit longer." He scoffed. "Another one of his would-be heroes? Don't make me laugh. You're just another fool looking for glory."

"I've known you for all of eight seconds and I already hate you, sword man." The teen's right hand shot up, the fingers wrapping around the blade. "Anyways, I'm not too worried about this."

"What?" The red eyes that had been focused on Kyomu's face leered down to the spot where the sword pierced the teen. "What the...?"

There was no blood where the sword sunk into Kyomu's stomach, nor was there even a wound the sword was sunken into. Instead the sword had plunged right into a small, completely black spot that had opened right where the sword had been aiming before it made its mark. Even more surprising to the sword-wielding man was the fact that the sword was being pushed back despite his best efforts to keep pressing forwards, and that the part of the blade being forced out from the black portal was completely frozen and cracking along the edge.

"I've recently learned that certain metals become brittle when frozen," Kyomu said as he pushed more of the blade out of the Void portal. "Void's temperature is exactly absolute zero. Dunno what this thing is rated to withstand, but I really doubt it's against something like that."

He twisted his wrist, and the sword's blade shattered into thousands of pieces. The red-dressed man, now holding a empty hilt, narrowed his eyes slightly before dropping the useless weapon and leaping backwards. He crouched down and reached to his sides, gripping two knives strapped to him. Kyomu, for his part, stepped backwards to Midoriya's side, who had already risen to his feet.

Kyomu glanced down. If there was any relief in Midoriya's eyes, it was lost before he had a chance to see in favor of focusing directly at the threat in front of them. Glancing behind him, Kyomu spotted three more figures. Todoroki, who looked as wary as Midoriya was at the moment, and too more figures who were on the ground. A man, strangely enough, dresses as an Indian, and Iida. Both were motionless.

He'd feared the worst, but when he saw the minute motions of their bodies that let him know they were still breathing, Kyomu let out a breath small enough it went unnoticed by anybody else.

"They knocked out or what?" he asked, nodding his head to the fallen two behind them before refocusing on the bladed man.

Midoriya shook his head. "No, paralyzed. It's his Quirk. He can paralyze somebody by ingesting some of their blood."

Kyomu's mouth dropped slightly. "... That's really gross, man." His tone of voice made it unclear as to whether he was addressing the man directly or if he was merely commentating on the Quirk, though the level of disgust held in his voice was plan to see. "How does that even... what, he just licks and they fall like that? How-?"

"Shinka." Todorki stepped to the teen's side, a hand raised while his eyes stared at the man in front of him. "Now isn't the time to be thinking about something like that. Not with an enemy staring us down."

"Yeah, guess so," Kyomu agreed. "So what's this guy's deal?"

Midoriya clenched his fists hard enough that to gloves he wore squeaked loudly. "He's Stain. The hero murderer they keep talking about in the news. He's trying to kill Iida, Shinka!"

Dark blue eyes narrowed, and a pale hand twitched sporadically. "That so?"

The man- Stain- chose that moment to get his words in. He pointed his knife forwards and towards Iida's fallen form, his tongue briefly flicking out of his mouth as he looked down in disdain. "That boy over there can hardly be called a hero," he said. "He's just like all the other false mockeries walking around corrupting the name 'hero'. Him and the fool sitting near him." He flipped the knife he held into a reverse grip. "You. Why have you come?"

"'Cause Midoriya asked," he said simply. "He needed help and I came. By the way, Mido, cops're gonna be super pissed at me." He glanced down at the shorter teen. "I had to leave a crime scene for this."

Midoriya's eyes widened a comical amount. "Y-you did what!?"

"So," Stain interrupted, "you came to the aid to another at great personal expense despite not knowing what their issue was. Admirable in of itself. Like the two besides you, I would call you a worthy holder of the title of hero." His mouth thinned to a line as the grip on his knife tightened. "Or I would, if it wasn't for that look you had."

A black eyebrow was raised. "Look?"

"When told I was attempting to kill the one back there, for just a brief moment, I saw it. That look that flashed through your eyes. A look of complete bloodlust. The same look the boy back there had when he attempted to avenge his falsie hero brother." He cast a distasteful sneer at Kyomu. "You're nothin' but another faker in the making. You, too, must be purged."

"You're gonna kill a guy completely based off a look he gave you?" Kyomu shook his head. "Words really do fail to describe you."

Whether he was uninterested in any other words the teen had to say or his comment really had drove Stain to dive towards him, nobody knew. The two teens besides Kyomu were prepared, for the lunge, though, with Midoriya leaping towards the nearest wall while Todoroki jumped backwards with ice exploding in front of him. Kyomu stood his ground and stayed in place.

When the smallest teen in the group had launched off the wall in an attempt to punch Stain, the villain had simply vaulted over the boy and pushed him to the ground while losing no momentum in his mad dash towards Kyomu. The ice sent his way was similarly avoided as he'd merely lid under the sheet that attempted to pin him in place, only for him to quickly rise back to his feet. The pair of knives were spun in his hands as he jumped at Kyomu, slicing the knives right at him.

It would be inaccurate to say that the knives managed to hit their target. They did, indeed, slash through Kyomu, though they did not slash at the space he currently occupied. As the knives had neared his face and chest, the skin and cloth covering the intended target gave way to pure blackness. The knives went in and were dragged along those two sections of the body. More blackness appeared in the path of the knives while it disappeared behind the knives' trails, effectively making it look as it the dark spots the knives dug into moved along the teens body. They were finally torn out the other side, with Kyomu's body having sustained no damage while the knives in Stain's hands now lacked blades, having been disintegrated in Void.

"Won't work." Kyomu kicked at the villain. He'd crossed his arms just in time to block the kick, but had softly grunted at the force he felt behind in. His bones groaned loudly and even cracked as he was sent sliding backwards, with his hands already reaching for new blades as soon as he stopped. _"Already been stabbed once by my bro,"_ he thought bitterly. _"Never letting that happen again. Too debilitating. And if he gets my blood it's all over. Can't let him cut me. Can't let him leave. Others."_ His eyes flicked back to his classmates. _"In the way. What do I do?"_

His thoughts were cut off when a third knife was thrown Kyomu's way. A portal opened up right in its path, where the knife soon disappeared. A second later Stain staggered forwards, growling softly as he reached a hand behind him. A second portal had opened up right behind him, where the knife he'd thrown had exited and had embedded itself in the back of Stain's right shoulder. He went even more rigid, and looked down in shock to see his left leg encased in ice emerging out from a nearby black portal.

Any action he could have taken to attempt to free himself was curbed when Midoriya jumped right in front of him and kicked him right in the sternum. The force jarred him free of the ice that held him and carried him right into the wall. He slid down right onto the ground, groaning so low that Kyomu's ears almost failed to pick it up.

Nevertheless, it proved that he was still conscious. So Kyomu had run over to him and had kicked him right in the face. That was when he went unconscious.

* * *

It was fortunate that one in their group, the native-dressed hero Stain had targeted that was, rather creatively, named Native, had some rope on hand to tie the sleeping hero up as soon as he was put under by Kyomu's foot. Even more fortunate was that his paralysis ability was temporary, and both Iida and Native were up and moving. Sporting some wounds, to be sure, but otherwise alright.

"So Iida was that torn up about his brother, huh?" Kyomu muttered as he leaned against the alley's wall. Midoriya was standing with Iida, yelling and berating him for putting himself and a hero in danger due to a personal grudge. Todoroki leaned on the wall next to the black-haired teen and had only needed to mention Iida's brother for Kyomu to understand. "He seemed so calm after the Sports Festival, too, when he heard about his brother getting paralyzed by Stain."

"Guess he was just hiding it," Todoroki said. "Only reason he interned here was to see if he could get a shot at Stain. Wanted to avenge his brother." He shook his head. "Stupid. He doesn't even have the authority to do something like that. He risked everything over a grudge..."

Kyomu nodded in wordless agreement. _"I can't really blame the guy too much. I mean, with everything I do... still. He's out to make an actual career out of heroism. I'm just doing it out of convenience. He went way outta line. We all did."_ He sighed. _"Man, I'm in so much trouble over tonight. I was just supposed to intern. How the hell... agh. What's done is done. Just gotta deal with whatever happens."_

There were a lot of legal repercussions that he wasn't too knowledgeable of that was sure to follow him after tonight. Something heavy, he was sure. There was a solid chance he and Sen could get away with that ice villain, but with Stain... he didn't know. Going out of his way to fight a villain was one thing, coming to a friend in aid was another.

Speaking of Stain...

 _"I've gotta find a way to kill him,"_ Kyomu thought as his eyes slowly shifted over to the tied-up villain. _"I dunno if it's possible. Might not be, with all my classmates around. I won't get a chance to be isolated with him between now and handing him off to the police. And if the police take him... then, yeah, I'm not getting a shot at him. Period. And if he goes missing between now and us handing him to the police, best case it'll put us in more trouble for messing up, and worse case it looks suspicious. Like we killed him and used Void to dump his body. Which wouldn't entirely be inaccurate..."_ His shoulders sagged. _"How many heroes did that guy kill? Dozen or two? Maybe more? I didn't keep count. Maybe they'll just lock the guy up in prison for life. Entirely likely, actually. Japan's law system takes murder extremely seriously, doubly so with cop and hero killers. But... there's a chance. A chance they might not lock him up forever. If he gets out and kills again..."_ His hands, which held a firm grip on his shoulders, tightened. _"And if you're gonna lock the guy up for life anyways, might as well just kill him now. Damn it all. I can't do anything with them around."_

"Shinka?" He was torn from his musings by the tall teen that had minutes ago been frozen on the floor. Kyomu looked up at Iida, who looked down at him with a look of gratitude. "I know it wasn't easy doing what you did. Coming to my aid like that. I owe you all a huge debt of gratitude." He turned around to look at Stain. "I... I just wish..."

"Iida, can we save this for later?" Kyomu's tone was terse, given the situation. Iida took note of this immediately and stepped back. "It's just... you know, there's a villain there and everything. Cops are probably gonna take us in for questioning and everything, you have stab wounds and need a hospital... can we just do this later? Please?"

Looking to the side, the taller teen nodded. "Of course," he said. "I... would actually like to have my wounds tended to, actually."

There were light chuckles all around as the tension started to slowly leave the group. Despite the grievous wounds most everybody except Kyomu held, there was smile that were passed around all around. Even Todoroki, who usually had a stern face, managed to crack a small smile in light of the events.

Of course, the sudden screech above them immediately wiped those smiles off of them. A blurry figure swooping down and snatching Midoriya up in its talons sent them off into the panic.

"The hell- what!?" Kyomu rolled to the side and snapped his head upwards in shock. Another humanoid monster with an exposed brain and wings. A Nomu. And it had just picked Midoriya up and had carried him out the alley.

His classmates and the wounded hero were too in shock to do much to do anything, though, in their defense, only fractions of a second had passed before Kyomu had begun pursuit of the Nomu carrying away Midoriya. He'd made it all the way to the sidewalk outside of the alley before he spotted the thing flying away in the middle of the street. There were other heroes around as well: a dozen or so who had no doubt been chasing the thing. They, too, were frozen in place an unsure as to what to do with the monster carrying away the small teen.

With Midoriya's size and high-pitched screaming, they likely thought it was a child the thing was carrying away. That had likely added a second or two to the amount of time they'd hesitated.

 _"You're not taking him."_ Growling lowly under his breath, Kyomu held his hand out in front of him in a snapping gesture. _"Don't know if it's just rabid and picked him out at random. Don't know if it's under orders. Doesn't matter. You're not taking him!"_ He pressed his fingers together. _"If that's what you're gonna use those wings for, then you don't deserve them!"_

He snapped.

It was for an extremely brief moment that two small, black disks formed at the base of the creature's wings, around a few centimeters from its back. They'd appeared so briefly that, to any outside observer, it would have looked as if a shadow merely passed over them. The fact that it was nighttime and there were cars on fire all around tossing shadows everywhere didn't help in terms of visibility.

Regardless, that brief moment was just enough time for Void to separate the Nomu from its wings.

It screeched loudly, immediately releasing Midoriya from its clutches as it spiraled down towards the ground. Green energy arced off the short teen as he landed and hopped away just as the Nomu crashed down on the concrete.

"Aaaiee!"

The shriek was just loud enough that Kyomu had to grimace when he heard it. _"Who's screaming over what? Monster's down."_ Rubbing his little finger in his ear, Kyomu took one quick look at Midoriya to make sure he was still alright and turned around. _"Geez, it's not like- EH!?"_

The sight of Native tumbling across the ground was not a sight the teen expected to see once he'd turned around to the sound of the noise. He'd immediately feared that one of the other Nomu had come to attack them, and had stepped back a single step in preparation of it. His eyes immediately focused on the figure that was a few steps away from the fallen hero, trailed closely behind by Todoroki and Iida.

 _"Wait."_ Nomu were human shaped for the most part from what he'd seen, but they weren't that small. The red scraps of cloth all over him and the cut pieces of rope hanging off were another solid indicator. _"Stain? But we..."_ Kyomu's eyes focused on the small knife he had in his hand. _"We didn't search him for concealed weapons. Ah. That's not good."_

The other heroes around had taken quick notice to the screaming and the armed man who most certainly did _not_ look like a hero standing in the middle of the street. It was upon one hero screaming "STAIN!" did they all flare their various Quirks and pieces of gear and take different readying stances as they all barked orders at one another.

If Stain had any concern over the amount of heroes flanking him on all sides, he didn't show much. He only licked his lips viciously and brandished his knife as he snarled at everyone around him.

 _Stomp!_

Kyomu felt his skin prickle, as it felt as if the ambient temperature around them had just risen a few degrees. In the cool night air it was especially noticeable. The darkness also gave aid to the approaching source of light that was slowly stomping over to the red-dressed villain. The only thing louder than the stomping was the sound of knuckles cracking as the approaching hero wrung his hands together in anticipation.

"Endeavor." There was no mistaking the raw contempt found in Stain's tone as he violently hissed the flaming hero's name out. "Of all the fakers out there, you're the worst one of them all!" he screamed.

"Big words coming from the wounded villain." There was the barest hint of a smirk on the hero's face, the same kind of smirk one might have found on a predator cornering prey. Otherwise his face was, for the most part, a stony mask, and the intensity of the flames suggested anything other than a positive emotion coursing through him. "You have two options. Come quietly, or we take you in by force. Judging by your heavy breathing... it wouldn't be in your best interest to fight back."

"You? Take me in?" Stain hissed. "Just so I can become another name you fuel your ego? Another accomplishment to further embolden your _false title_!?" He turned to fully face the larger man. He stared up at his teal eyes so intensely that the hero had halted in his footsteps just from that glare alone. "I refuse to be taken down by one such as yourself! You are unworthy to even call yourself a hero!"

Hearing a startled gasp next to him, Kyomu turned to look at Midoriya. His face was screwed in actual fright, and his body seemed to lock up from the mere words being spoken by the villain. _"What's up with him?"_ Looking around, the Void user realized that everybody was frozen in place. His classmates, the professional heroes, it didn't matter; they were all frozen in place from Stain's words. _"What's got them all hung up?"_

"This society is stained with fools who have stolen the title of hero!" Stain screamed. He turned from side to side to gesture at every single hero gathered around him before focusing back on Endeavor. He looked nothing short of raving mad. "I have taken it upon myself to take back what it means to be a hero because nobody else will! You're all fakes! All of you! You must all be purged!"

 _"What is this feeling?"_ It was only at this point into the villain's speech did Kyomu feel it. Another prickling sensation running across his skin, not from the heat, but, strangely enough, from the villain's _words_. As if his words alone was having some physical affect on him. _"He's a raving fanatic. So what's this feeling going across me?"_ Perplexed, Kyomu looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers. _"It's... strange. It's like he's talking right next to me. It's like I can feel his actual anger. It's so real that it's got everybody else around me frozen. Weird."_

How much conviction and rage could one person possibly have that they could physically project it around them with mere words? Enough to make heroes like Endeavor stop in their tracks? It was confusing to the teen.

"The only one worthy among you is All Might!" Stain continued to rant on despite the frozen bodies around him. "All Might is worthy! He is the only one I will allow to kill me! Not any of you fakes, and especially not the biggest one there is!"

"All Might..." The change in mood on Endeavor's face was extremely obvious. He'd went frozen with a look of almost awe to pure rage upon the number one hero's name being mentioned. He'd curled his fists as flames circled heavily around them, his teeth grinding as the fire all around him flare. "It's always gotta be about him, doesn't it?" He charged forwards. "Well I don't think so!"

He would have made it to Stain, too. The fact was that the villain was too injured from the previous fight to have made any move against Endeavor, who, while slightly exhausted from the Nomu fights from the wear on his costume, was still plenty full of energy from how fast he was charging forwards. It would have been over in seconds had the hero actually managed to make it.

However, during Endeavor's mad dash to the villain, Kyomu had noticed a brick at his feet. An average, ordinary brick, likely shaken loose from a nearby fight from a damaged building that just happened to have made its way to his feet. To anybody else it would be one of the most inconsequential objects in the world. Something to be completely ignored, as most people would be too focused on the Hero-Killer to even pay attention to such a thing.

Kyomu had two aspects going for him that prevented such a scenario from happening. One was that, unlike everyone else present, he was, for the most part, largely unaffected by the paralyzing aura Stain had exhumed. Secondly was the fact that he didn't want Stain captured.

So he'd opened two Void portals, one in front of the brick and one in front of Endeavor's feet, and roughly kicked the brick through. It arrived quickly to the other side and caught the villain in his feet, tripping him up. To anybody else it would just appear the hero had accidentally tripped on a brick already in his way. Any cold from Void was warmed by the intense flames covering Endeavor, and the portals faded too quickly for anybody to notice. Even if they had been looking for such a thing, they would have been almost impossible to see in the darkness.

The apparent fumble of Endeavor, however, was the momentary reprieve that Stain needed. When the number two hero stumbled forwards, Stain twirled around his side, raking his knife over the larger man's side and drawing blood. It was a shallow wound, one that would not even scar, but one that bled nonetheless. And that bit of blood that Stain licked up off his blade was just enough to paralyze the hero he just ran past.

Other heroes tried their best to apprehend the villain. The fact they couldn't despite the number of different powers and the fact Stain was wounded, was nothing short of impressive to Kyomu. Whether it be streams of high-pressure water or stone pillars erupting from the earth, no matter the power, he'd expertly dodged and avoided ever single one, and then had slashed at a hero only to quickly fall back while licking at his blade. One by one they fell down, with the heroes growing more and more desperate and sloppy with each fallen member.

Eventually, they all fell. All alive and fully conscious, but unable to do anything due to the Hero Killer's Quirk. After all was down, he'd sheathed the blade he used inside his boot and had taken one glance at the teen's general direction. It was impossible to tell from the distance he was at who he was looking at, Kyomu or Midoriya, but regardless he'd taken a single glance and turned around. Then he'd jumped from his spot on the street, grabbed a street lamp and flipped himself on top of it, and had jumped to a nearby fire escape only to then flee to the rooftop and make it off into the night.

Kyomu grew ecstatic.

* * *

Overall, the night wasn't a complete failure. There was collateral damage everywhere, a dangerous serial killer had escaped them, and both he and some of his classmates were in physical peril... not to mention possibly legal peril... but the monsters, those Nomu, had been caught by the heroes. So there was that at the very least, right?

Midoriya sighed. Not only from the small, old man whacking him over the head, but from the feeling of failure that was currently coursing through him.

"I tell you to stay on the train. What do you do? You hop out like a maniac chasing around monsters and getting into fights with serious villains way above your level!" The gray-haired elder in the yellow suit was unrelenting with the bashes he was giving. He had to jump up every time to reach Midoriya's head. "What in the world was going on through that thick skull of yours!?"

He'd had a lot of doubts over the retired hero interning him. He was still debating whether Gran Torino had a mental deficiency due to his age- bless his heart- or if he was just feigning ignorance half the time to mess with him. Maybe both? Probably both, now that he thought about it. But he had been the main reason he'd finally gotten an, albeit little, control over his own power. All Might's... old power. He'd hoped that the old teacher of his idle could help him in some degree, and to his gratefulness, he'd went above and beyond.

And what had he done in return? Disobey orders. Botch up a villain capture he wasn't even supposed to attempt. To say he was mortified was an understatement.

Another thwap to his head. "What is going on in that noggin of yours, anyhow?" he asked. "I not yelling loud enough to get the message through? I gotta kick you around some more?"

Midoriya shook his head. "No, it's... it's not that." He looked around the darkened streets. Most of the heroes had dispersed, though some still stayed behind to help with damages and help any civilians that had been caught in the crossfire. Endeavor was off to the side giving a press release to some newspeople with a soured look on his face. Cops were around every corner, cordoning off the area and escorting the docile Nomu to armored vans to take them away. There were also ambulances around, too, to take care of those that had been wounded in the attack.

He frowned. Iida was in one of those ambulances.

"I shouldn't have meddled," the teen murmured. "I just... we tried our best, but Stain still got away. Maybe if we hadn't interfered, the other heroes dealing with the Nomu could have apprehended him after they finished up. If I had maintained my guard and saw that Nomu coming, I wouldn't have distracted everyone. If I had thought to search Stain for hidden weapons, he wouldn't have broken loose. If-"

"If this, if that, who cares?" Green eyes snapped open in surprise when he heard the aged hero speak. "You said that Stain had a sword pointed right over your friend's head, right?" he asked. "That, if you hadn't intervened, he would have killed your classmate?"

"Y-yeah..." Midoriya agreed. "But-"

"But nobody died," Gran Torino interrupted. "Look. Kid. You're green." He paused, looking Midoriya up and down. "I mean that in the metaphorical sense," he added, "and a villain of Stain's caliber isn't someone to be taken lightly. You say you got in the way? From how it sounds, the guy was surrounded on all sides and was even cornered by the number two hero and still managed to get away despite the fact he was wounded. Your blaming yourself for interfering? A good hero and training and possibly a professional hero would be dead right now if you and your classmates hadn't intervened?" He pinched the bridge of his nose while exhaling loudly. "Honestly, I swear, it's like Toshinori is teaching you all his bad habits and nothing useful. Just like him." He looked back up at the student. "I'm not saying you should have butted in where you didn't belong. I'm also not saying you shouldn't have stood aside and done nothing. What kind of hero would you be if you just watched something like that happen?"

 _"Not a good one,"_ Midoriya thought. The look on his face was more than enough to give the retired hero his answer.

"It'll blow over, all of this," he assured. "You'll take some flak from the law most likely, but it won't be anything too serious. Situations like this are more common than you think. Don't worry about it too much. Just keep developing that Quirk of yours and get stronger so things like this don't repeat in the future. You're not a full hero yet- you're a student. Save all this worrying of yours until after you get a license and leave it to the pros for now."

The student slowly nodded in understanding. There was no use in worrying about it now. Energy used towards worrying had better uses elsewhere. He still had a long way to go before finally becoming a hero. He didn't have time to dwell on things like this. He could only learn from it and move on.

Looking up, feeling better than he had minutes ago, he saw the peculiar sight of one of the classmates that had fought alongside him against Stain leaning against the brick wall of a building, arms cross with his slightly frayed jacket lightly flapping in the wind. Shinka, for the most part, looked completely calm. Void of any worry, unlike Midoriya previously. His ghostly pale was was just instead set in a serene calm as he stared up at the rooftops where Stain had fled to at the end of the fight.

 _"Shinka..."_ The short teen thought. _"He's... what would have happened if he hadn't arrived to help us?"_

He had some doubts about his chances of success with fighting Stain. Gran Torino had hit the nail on the head; Stain was a truly legitimate villain, through and through. One that had eliminated top-tier pro heroes. He had no illusion that he would have managed to defeat the Hero-Killer on his own, especially at his current level. With Todoroki's help they were barely scraping by. Maybe, if they had kept at the pace they were going, they could have held him off long enough that Iida would have been free of the paralysis and would have been able to help. It was a slim chance, but with the three of them working together they'd have had a decent shot at taking him down.

Shinka arriving had been an unexpected but welcome surprise. The fact he could use his Quirk in such a way that he completely negated Stain's blades were, quite frankly, extremely remarkable. Even now he had to hold back the tide of thoughts and questions that were forming about his classmate's Quirk. He'd already written down so much of it in one of his notebooks, but the technique he displayed tonight added all kinds of possibilities he had never thought of before.

But that was for another time.

His classmate, Shinka, though... was powerful in more than just his Quirk, which in itself was already insanely powerful. He'd displayed raw strength that had far outpaced the Hero-Killer's own. His reflexes and speed were such that he, unlike the rest of them, hadn't even been wounded in the fight. What little progress he and Todoroki managed to scratch out he seemed to extract almost... effortlessly.

 _"I know that he's strong. Everybody in our class knows, especially after the Sports Festival. Shinka's just... Shinka."_ He slowly found himself walking towards the taller teen, wringing his hands together behind his back. _"I should thank him, at the very least. He must have a lot going on in his mind. And..."_ He thought back to that Nomu that had snatched him up, only for it to suddenly drop him. The sight of it missing its wings had been a large surprise. _"I should probably ask about that."_

Even when he'd finally arrived to Shinka's side, he was still staring off wistfully at the rooftops before he tilted his head downwards. His eyes had flicked over to Midoriya for just a second before he looked down the street at Endeavor. "How much you wanna bet that guy'll blame Stain's escape on a bunch of students that got in the way?" he asked. "Mm... on second thought, his son was there with us. Maybe he won't try to spin that so he'll save face."

"It wasn't our place to interfere. But... I agree with you. We did save lives today," Midoriya amended. "And, well... Endeavor tried his best. It's not our fault he'd failed to capture him."

For some reason, Shinka laughed at that. "Sure," he agreed. "But, ah, I dunno. Endeavor's so popular. Got a great track history and Quirk and everything. Heroes and villains alike admire his strength. Whatever he chooses to say will be truth, whether it be right or not. It's because of that strength that the truth he'll say will be right."

Midoriya frowned. "Might doesn't make right, Shinka," he said. "Endeavor is just doing what he has to. Whatever he says will be for the betterment for everybody."

"I know that," Shinka assured. He looked up at the night sky. "What kind of world would we be in if might controlled what was right? That's villain philosophy. It'd be the Wild West, but worse. Everybody'd be popping off powers instead of revolvers." He moved his hands up to his head and interlocked his fingers behind his head. "The law decides what's right, and since mostly everybody agrees with it, that makes it alright, right? It maintains a status quo mostly everybody's happy with. Heroes don't use their strength to make right. They use it to protect right." He paused. "I just... it's right for me to think that not _everything_ they do to protect right isn't... right, Midoriya? Right? It's okay to disagree on a few things here and there?"

The green-eyed teen blinked. "Like what, Shinka?"

"I don't know, like..." A thoughtful look came across his face, and he looked over to one of the armored cars carrying the Nomu. "Those monster things. The Nomu," he tried. "What are they gonna do? Just lock them up and call it a day?"

"The Nomu are a tricky subject. We just don't know a lot about them." He glanced up at Shinka. "Speaking of which, I wanted to thank you for, well, saving me. From the flying one. It's just..."

"Yes?"

"Did you really have to use your Quirk to cut its wings off?" Midoriya asked. "It's just that, well, heroes aren't supposed to do that, Shinka. It's only in extreme situations is force like that necessary. You could even get charged for using excessive force like that."

Shinka sighed. "What, the monster's gonna sue me?" he scoffed. "Midoriya, I'm not even sure if you can call those things human anymore. Doubtful that they should fall under the same rights as any other sapient being. From what I've seen they're just mindless drones, nothing more. But yeah," he conceded, "you're right. We don't really know a whole lot about them. Maybe there's a cure. Maybe they're stuck as mindless monsters forever. Who knows? Probably the guy that makes them if your whole bio-engineered theory pans out. It's looking like it is." Shinka shrugged. "Tell you what. I'll tell the Nomu sorry if they ever manage to change him back. Otherwise I feel fine about it. That said... well, look at the things, Midoriya. I doubt there's any coming back from that. But Quirks are Quirks. Anybody's guess."

A frown found itself stretching across Midoriya's face. "What would you want done with the Nomu?"

"Personally? I'd rather put the things out of their misery."

"You mean... kill them?" Midoriya exclaimed in a shocked tone. "Shinka, that's... no. No, that's too far." He shook his head. "Even if there's a chance to turn them back, it's enough to try. And even if that's impossible, we, _nobody_ , has that right. We're heroes. Heroes don't kill unless strictly, absolutely necessary."

"And ain't that rarely the case?" Shinka remarked. "What if those things break free from confinement? I'm sure the nearest pedestrian they pummel into oblivion will appreciate we gave 'em a chance." He pushed off the wall. "Eh, whatever. We have no say in it anyways. We're teenagers. Ain't even got provisional licenses." He looked down at Midoriya and, in a surprising gesture, put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad we saved Iida tonight, Midoriya. And I'm glad we were able to fight together. Probably wouldn't have beaten Stain without you."

Midoriya looked to the side. "That's not true," he said. "You... you probably could have held Stain off long enough for Iida to get up and help you. And you had Todoroki backing you up, too."

"Don't sell yourself short, shorty." The black-haired teen flicked Midoriya on the forehead, earning an ire-filled glare from him. "I saw those moves of yours. You're getting better. Didn't even incapacitate yourself by throwing a single punch!" He tilted his head to the side and smiled. "You just needed to play a bit of catch-up, that's all. 'Cause you got your power so late. At the rate you're going, you'll be a great hero one day. I'm sure of it."

"I hope so, Shinka." Midoriya looked up into Shinka's eyes and returned a smile of his own. "You'll make a great hero, too. You're strong, Shinka."

At that, the Void user frowned. "I'm not strong," he said. "I just was born lucky. That's it." He moved past a confused Midoriya, ruffling his hair along the way. "Gotta go back to Sen. Left him all alone. He's probably super mad."

"Eh? But, Shinka, we're in a crime scene. I don't think the police-"

"Yeah, I'm leaving a crime scene either way I go," Shinka sighed. "I'm just gonna go check up on him and figure out the rest as I go. I dunno. It'll work out." A large, black portal opened in front of him. "See ya later, I guess."

Before Midoriya could get another word out, he stepped through the portal. A part of him felt like scolding his friend for using his Quirk for traveling once more, but considering how tonight had went, he'd let it slide. Besides, he'd already stepped through the portal before anybody could raise any protest.

* * *

With the going-ons around Hosu city, most doors around the immediate vicinity were closed, as were most blinds shut with the lights inside of buildings turned off. Anybody still awake at this hour would have surely heard the fighting going on in the streets, and while hero fights were exciting to watch, most people tended to shy away from it when it got to the point of terrified screaming and exploding cars. So most people tried to avoid attracting as much attention as possible as a result.

This was the prime reason nobody had managed to spot the Hero-Killer Stain, wounded as he was, bounding from rooftop to rooftop. He'd lost count of the amount of blocks he'd traversed in order to escape the heroes, but it was only when he was out of breath did he finally stop in the center of the rooftop he'd found himself in. Said rooftop happened to be at a slightly lower elevation that most other roofs, and was therefor walled in due to all four buildings pressing against its sides having higher roofs. An overall bad place to be boxed in.

The killer didn't care too much as long as it kept him out of sight.

He sighed deeply, removing a hand that he'd been holding against his chest. He'd sustained some serious injuries in that fight with those UA students. Some internal bruising at worst, and at worst some major fractures. Not usually the case if one were dealing with heroes-in-training, but UA took in the cream of the crop. It shouldn't have been any surprise UA students were already stronger than the average pro hero. It was just too bad only one among them had the potential to be a true hero.

 _"One day we will meet again,"_ he thought, looking back and up towards the moon high in the sky. _"That small one, Midoriya... only he is worthy to carry the mantle of hero. I will leave him be. The rest, though... I will wait until after they become 'heroes' to make my judgement on them. The path I have chosen dictates that our meeting is inevitable, doubly so if they choose to actively seek me out. If they haven't become true heroes by then, then I shall purge them as I will of all false heroes."_ His thin lips curved downwards. _"Especially_ him _. The last one who came that used that black power."_

He could not describe the feeling he attained when fighting with that teenager. There was something inherently wrong with him, that, Stain knew for certain. He just didn't know what it was that feeling was. Just that there was something wrong with him when they fought. And on the street, when he'd released all that bloodlust... his killing intent had been enough to freeze even Endeavor in his tracks. It was a terror tactic he'd used often to distract heroes long enough to just get a single cut in them to get to their blood.

That kid hadn't even been fazed. The implications were unsettling.

"Hero-Killer Stain."

Stain's head snapped forwards and looked up to the rooftop directly in front of him. His eyes nearly bulged out of the cloth mask covering his eyes when he saw the very same UA student he'd just been thinking about standing up there, hands casually kept in his pockets as he stared down at the villain.

"I finally found you," he said. His voice was almost completely neutral, but there was a hint of something at the very back of it. Something that Stain almost didn't pick up with how subtle it had been. The sound of intense malice behind his voice. "I was worried. I thought for a sure a hero would track you down and take you in, but you managed to elude them all." He tilted his head to the left. "You're... a really special guy. It's too bad."

Frowning, the villain took a step backwards. His hands itched towards one of the hidden knives he had on him. "What is this?" he asked.

Kyomu blinked, as if not understanding the question. "You know what this is."

Stain's eyes narrowed. "Am I to assume that you're to attempt to take me in all on your own? To try and gather as much 'glory' as you can for your reputation as a future hero?"

"No. That's not what this is." He scratched the side of his head. "Guess you really don't have a clue."

The teen stepped off the edge of the roof and casually dropped down to the roof Stain stood on, right on his feet. For a five meter drop, it wasn't overly impressive, especially to one of Stain's caliber, but it got him on guard nonetheless.

"This... is a murder." Slowly, Kyomu began to casually walk directly to Stain. "In this spot, right here, right now, a killing will occur. Nobody except me will ever know a man died in this spot. No investigator, no matter how great, will ever be able to piece together the events that are about to happen. Any evidence that a crime was ever committed here will be erased from this universe. It will be as if nothing ever happened."

On top of the right roof walling in the space the two occupied, there was a large guardrail with thick railings. Because of this, and the position of the moon, it cast a large, segmented shadow between the approaching teen and the stationary villain. Kyomu, for all that he was worth, looked completely calm and collected despite the words he was speaking to Stain.

And then, he stepped into the darkness of one of the rail's shadow.

The change was so jarring that even Stain had to widen his eyes. Due to the dark coloring of his clothing and the nighttime lighting, Kyomu was completely shrouded in darkness the moment he stepped into the shadows. The only discernible feature of his silhouette was his two eyes. Before, they had been completely calm, almost bored dark blue eyes that had bored right into Stain's very own. Stepping into the shadows, it was almost as if they transformed. They's widened almost completely, giving them a furious, almost maddened look to them. Deep, red veins were clearly visible all across the whites of his eyes, almost as if he was straining his hardest for the mere action of _staring_ right at Stain.

Worst of all, however, was the sheer amount of bloodlust that was being shunted onto Stain from that single stare being given to him. It was nothing like the sensation he had given heroes who'd been exposed to his own bloodlust, bloodlust born from seeing an unjust society full of children with powers pretending to be heroes. Bloodlust formed from the rage of being ignored and felt like knives digging into one's body.

This bloodlust was an ocean. As if despair was given physical weight and was dumped right on top of Stain, with the pressure threatening to crush even his bones into powder. It was a feeling so intense that his vision blurred, and colors began to swim in front of him. On top of that, he could almost hear screaming at the edge of his hearing. Screams of pure anguish and hatred that had him rooted to the very spot he stood in. It was such a vivid experience that he could not even breath.

But then Kyomu stepped out of that segment of shadow and into the light. His eyes returned to their normal expression the second light hit it, and the pressure pressing down on Stain instantly disappeared. All went silent with the exception of Kyomu's footsteps as he continued to approach Stain.

He stepped into the shadows once more, and, like a flip being switched, that suffocating pressure overcame Stain once more, and normal eyes turned maddened. On and off this would go on until Kyomu finally cleared the shadow being cast by the guard rail and stood right in front of Stain. Suffice to say Kyomu had only made it halfway through the shadow before a knife was gripped tightly in his right hand.

"You're to kill me? Is that right?" The two slowly circled one another. "What makes you think you're capable?"

"I've killed many," Kyomu intoned, casual as could be as he matched Stain's walking. "You're just more skilled than the rest. You'll disappear all the same."

"Hrn. I believe you." Eventually a full circle was made, and they both completely stopped in the original positions they began circling in. "I see it in your eyes. Before, in the alleyway, it was all murky. I see now that what I saw was a facade. This is the first time I've seen you clearly. Your bloodlust was certainly palpable, at the very least."

Kyomu blinked. "I fail to see what this has to do with anything."

"Killers- or those who have the capacity to kill but just haven't had the opportunity- all exert bloodlust for others to feel. Killing intent fueled by powerful emotions that radiate their intent to kill others to those around them. Heroes in their line of work often grow a resistance due to their almost-daily exposure to this killing intent."

"... Back in the street. Your speech about your want to kill fake heroes. You froze everybody around you," the teen noted. "Even the great Endeavor was stopped from that feeling that was exuding from you. You believe so much in your cause, Stain. You believe you are more righteous than the heroes putting their lives on the line every single day. You believe it so hard that it's paralyzing people almost as effectively as your own Quirk."

A dry laughed emanated from Stain's throat. "I do not attempt to conceal by bloodlust. You are the exact opposite. You have killing intent, too. An ocean's worth buried inside of you that you keep hidden from everybody else. Hidden so well that the only people that feel it are those you are about to execute." He pointed his knife at the teen. "Bloodlust like that does not come without strong emotions and an unwavering faith in one's own conviction. What drives you? What is your motivation?"

Kyomu looked up at the moon. A look not unlike contemplation crossed his face, and then he looked back down at Stain. "You're about to die anyways. Why not?" He shrugged. "How much do you know about me and my brother?"

The knife tilted downwards. "You are Shinka Kyomu. Your resemblance to your brother, Shinka Hikari, is uncanny. I've met him myself."

"That so? How is my brother doing these days?"

"He's embedded deep within the world of villains. He's even gone and joined that League," Stain answered. "A young group, inexperienced, weak. But... there is great potential in them. I saw that much when I visited." He paused, tossing the knife in the air and letting it make a full revolution before he caught it once more. "There's talk here and there in the underground about your brother. A young villain with enough power to stop the number two hero, Endeavor. Somebody who murdered his own parents for seemingly no reason. They see him as a danger. Why do you think heroes are trying so desperately to locate him?"

"I'm the one that killed our parents, not Hikari."

The only sounds to be heard between them after that statement was spoken was the wind whistling around them and the distant sirens going off. Stain seemed mildly shocked by the revelation, and spent some moments searching Kyomu's face for any sign of deception. When he found nothing but a completely straight face, he frowned.

"For what reason have you two deceived everyone?" he asked.

"A villain had broken into our house," the teen answered. "I was a child whose Quirk had just awakened. When I saw my parents bleeding on the floor, and a villain with knives for fingers staring right me, I had lashed out with a power I did not even know I possessed. Everything but me and my brother was destroyed. But, self-defense or not, regardless of my age, I'd killed with my Quirk. This country... rather hates that. So my brother lied to everyone and said he'd killed our parents just to save me from living the life he lived in prison.

"I found out later that the villain I mentioned had a sordid history," he continued. "He'd been imprisoned and released for committing similar crimes multiple times. If Japan's justice system had kept him locked up, or better yet killed him off, he would have never come to my house. He never would have attacked my parents. I wouldn't have been so shocked that the activation of my Quirk would be violent enough to erase my home from this existence. How many villains have been released time and time again only for them to commit more crime? How many have been hurt due to the law's negligence?" Kyomu raised his arms in a hapless shrug. Black shadows crawled up and down his two raised limbs. "I kill villains because nobody else will."

Humming in understanding, the villain lowered his knife completely, though it was still held in his hand. "Society is in need of change. On that, we are agreed on. You, however, focus all of your anger on villains, where as I have focused on heroes."

"I got the idea. Fake heroes." Oh, how he had gotten that message. It would have been hard not to when Stain was screaming so loudly about his convictions that it froze people on the spot. "You're not too wrong. The job 'hero' and the actual meaning of the original word 'hero' differs greatly. People do it just for the money and advertising, sure. Some have no shame in admitting it. Even All Might has his face on every single conceivable marketable item imaginable. Can't go five feet down the street without seeing an All Might t-shirt or a coffee mug with his face on it. What's wrong with making money?"

"A hero should do heroic deeds because it is the right thing to do, not because there's money in it," Stain argued. "The modern-day hero is a perversion of what it originally stood for. People like All Might, true heroes who are righteous for right's sake, are a dying breed. Most heroes these days are more concerned with their own name than those they are supposed to be saving."

"And yet they save them anyways," Kyomu countered. "So what if they do it for greedy purposes? Altruism gets thrown out the window, I won't argue that. But they still save lives and stop villains. They still _do_ what a hero is supposed to do, even if that alone doesn't make them heroes by _your_ standards. You're killing people just for living their lives, people who have never hurt others. The people I kill make a living off hurting others."

"The actions I take get results." The black-haired teen froze at Stain's words. "In every city I've appeared and killed in, the heroes took notice. They doubled, even tripled, their efforts in capturing villains and protecting civilians. I can't say I know what goes on in their minds that my actions have motivated them to try and emulate being a true hero as much as humanly possible, but my actions do have an effect, Shinka Kyomu. You, however... I've never even heard of your actions. You have caused no change in this society with your actions."

"Of course not. Nobody but you and my brother even know I do this."

Red eyes narrowed, and Stain's frown deepened even further. "This is where you fail," he said. "How will your conviction reach others and inspire change in society, when you cower and kill in the dark, Shinka Kyomu? Your ideals fall on dead ears. You claim to want to change society, and yet you hide behind this false visage you've invented for yourself. You have no voice. You've changed nothing. Your actions are that of a petulant child taking out all his frustration on any wandering villain he can see." The knife was raised back up. "You're worse than a false hero. You're a villain who wears the guise of a hero. You must be eliminated above all else."

It was as if every single syllable said by Stain caused Kyomu's demeanor to significantly worsen. His face began to set into a deep scowl, and his hands tightened incredibly. Everything from the context of his words to the condescending tone he took- it all angered him.

 _"The worst part of it all,"_ he thought, _"is that he's right. I haven't changed anything. Killing all these villains hasn't solved a damn thing."_

What was he supposed to think when the sole reason for doing what he did, change society for harsher treatment of villains, had less effect than the actions of one of the villains he was supposed to be against. Worse than less, actually. He'd accomplished nothing. Stain, a villain, somebody who stood against everything Kyomu stood for, accomplished something. He'd had an effect.

Kyomu shook his head. None of that mattered. Stain was a villain. He'd never admit that he was wrong and a villain was right. To do something like that was to say all his actions were meaningless.

Small, marble-sized black dots began to manifest all around him. "It seems we're on the same page. You're someone who thinks they can kill anyone they want just because they have power. I don't care how noble you think your results are. I don't care about your results. You're a villain. I kill villains. And right now we both want to kill each other."

Silence once more passed between them. Moonlight glinted off the blade held in Stain's hand as he lowered slightly in an effort to prepare for attack, whereas Kyomu had slowly removed his hands from his pockets. Eyes were locked, and both waited for the other to make a move.

The first to move was Stain, who'd rapidly darted forwards with knife in hand, his eyes locked straight onto Kyomu's throat.

He'd made it four steps.

One of the small, black marbles floating besides Kyomu shot forwards at speeds akin to a bullet. Stain, though having refined reflexes, was still limited in his humanity, and was therefor unable to dodge the ball as it hit him. The ball, an unstable portal to Void wrapped and shaped as a sphere, punched straight through Stain's side with no effort whatsoever, and cleaved a path straight through the flesh it went through. Stain stumbled to a stop, and could not even raise a hand to the wound before eleven more of the balls rushed forwards and punched through his torso in multiple spots.

Blood flowed freely out from his mouth and his vision blurred heavily. He rapidly blinked to return in to normal and, to his shock, saw that Kyomu was absent from the spot he stood still at previously. The next thing he knew a arm bearing an inhuman amount of strength grabbed at his right arm, the one with the knife, and pulled it straight to his side. His head craned backwards, and he saw Kyomu standing right behind him, a portal closing at his back. Shadows obscured his face except for his eyes, which stared hatefully down at Stain, and the arm not holding the villain's own arm was raised up and encased in the darkness of Void.

Kyomu chopped his arm down. There was no resistance at all as it cleaved straight through Stain's arm. Blood splashed heavily on his face and clothes, and Stain, to his own credit, only gasped slightly as he stumbled backwards. Seemingly not even deterred by the pain of not having lost a limb, he'd reached down with his left hand to remove a knife from his boot and attempted to rush Kyomu with it.

A pale hand shot forwards before Stain could reach any of Kyomu's vitals with the knife. The hand made contact with Stain's torso, where it turned black and sank right in. _That_ had caused Stain to stop completely, and he'd even dropped the knife and started to shake as his head slowly tilted down to the hand piercing him.

"Your results are meaningless, Hero-Killer Stain," Kyomu hissed. The hand that had pierced into his insides via a Void portal rooted around, causing Stain to elicit a sharp gasp and fruitlessly grab at the teen's wrist. "Killing innocents isn't an answer, regardless of the results. It makes us no better than villains."

"Who-" Stain coughed, splashing more blood on Kyomu's face, "- who are you to value the life of a-a random villain over a random hero's, Shinka?"

Kyomu pulled his hand out. In his hand was an organ that had been frozen solid the moment it was pulled through the Void portal. Stain's own heart, which he had ripped free of the villain's chest.

"None of your words matter, Hero-Killer Stain. I've won. You've lost." He crushed the heart. Frozen pieces of tissue and congealed, jellied blood covered them both.

It was a testament to Stain's own strength and willpower that he was still moving despite his fatal injuries. He grit his teeth, blood profusely flowing from between his teeth, and curled his remaining hand into a fist. It was a punch so slow and weak that, even if it weren't for Kyomu's durability, it likely wouldn't have done any damage to his face.

But, unfortunately for Stain, the fist never even reached his adversary, as Kyomu, with Void flowing off his palm, roughly grabbed Stain's face and scraped away. What was left afterwards couldn't even be considered a face; a more accurate description would be a skull that had been split vertically down the middle. Blood flowed endlessly out of what was left of the half-skull's throat, nose, and eye sockets, and what was left of the brain threatened to spill out from the now-opened cavity.

Kyomu pushed the corpse down. He didn't even give the body a final glance, and instead stared straight forwards. Red predominately covered his clothes and exposed skin.

"The truth of what happened here will forever remain hidden. The reality of what I choose shall be the truth accepted by all others, and my work will continue to be uninhibited." A black portal opened under Stain's corpse, and the body slowly began to fall through. "Fade into obscurity in a world that light cannot touch."

Slowly but surely, the body sank all the way through the portal and into Void. More Void slowly washed over Kyomu and the surrounding ground around him, and the blood shed during the fight was slowly lost to Void.

Seconds passed, and the portals faded. The rooftop was left completely pristine, without a body, discarded weapons, or so much as a drop of blood in sight. Similarly, Kyomu's outfit and skin was completely cleared of blood. He looked to be in the exact same condition as he was when he first arrived to confront Stain.

"Maaan..." Sighing heavily, Kyomu looked up. The first tinges of orange began to show up on the horizon, indicating sunrise. "I'm so baked. Sen'll yell at me, cops'll yell at me... I gotta get back to that museum as quick as I can."

He took one more look at the spot Stain had fallen, scrunched his face for a moment, and then opened a portal in front of him and hopped through. His thoughts were relatively more focused on his friends as he made his way back to the museum, though there was one thought so far in the back of his head that Kyomu barely registered.

 _"Stain's wrong. Villains aren't human anymore. Their lives aren't equal to anyone else's. It's fine to kill them. I'm not wrong. I'm not wrong..."_


	22. Chapter 22

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 22- Justice is just a word**

* * *

 _"Ah. Hospitals. My favorite place in the world."_ Kyomu could barely dodge the orderly that had rushed past him while muttering strings of medical jargon under her breath. With his reflexes, her speed was actually impressive. _"Place chock full of the sick, injured, crotchety old folk, and maybe, just maybe, one or two screamers in the psyche ward. What's not to love?"_

It was a good thing he'd seldom ever been to hospitals, because otherwise he very well could have lost his mind.

"Kyomu, tell it to me straight." Sen walked up besides him and tugged on his shirt's sleeve. He didn't look overly concerned, but he was far from being at ease. Kyomu couldn't blame him much. "How steamed are we here?"

"You're probably the least steamed outta all of us, Sen." The two rounded a corner, and Kyomu began to count off the numbers on the rooms they passed. "Whereas I'm the most steamed. Probably. We'll find out in a bit, I guess."

"He didn't even tell us what was gonna happen. That's a bad sign, isn't it?"

Kyomu shrugged. "Can't pretend to know what was going on in that dog's head, man. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens." He sighed. "Can't wait."

The fact was that the two of them didn't know how much trouble- or lack thereof- they were in for their actions in capturing the freeze villain, and how much trouble Kyomu was in for assisting in fighting Stain. They'd been walked away by police, questioned, and the chief of police himself had walked them to a police car and said that everything would be easier to explain when the whole group, i.e. Kyomu and Sen and their three classmates who fought Stain, were all together to explain what would happen.

Said chief of police also had a dog Quirk that made him look like an anthropomorphic dog. Kyomu remained silent of any dog puns to avoid his ire and making the situation worse than it was.

The two students stopped walking when they reached a room with a number in front of it that they desired. They entered immediately, with Kyomu leading the way and opening the door with Sen closely behind him.

The inside of the hospital room looked normal enough. Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida were all in there with bandages around the various injuries they'd sustained. Iida, who'd sustained it the worst with his arm having been wounded with Stain's sword, was in a cast.

"Yo, yo, yo." Kyomu rapidly rapped his knuckle on the door as he and Sen walked inside the room. "We're comin' in."

"Shinka? Eikyo?" Blinking in surprise, Midoriya turned his body and pushed himself off the bed to walk closer to the two. "What are you both doing here?"

Kyomu rubbed the back of his neck. "Believe it or not, we're in trouble with the law, too. Remember that crime scene I mentioned in the alley?" The shorter teen nodded. "Yeah, it's about that. And the Stain thing. Apparently the chief of police wanted us all together so we could talk about what's gonna happen because of everything we did. So yeah."

Everybody, even Sen, who already knew this, winced once the explanation was given. Kyomu himself even had to resist the urge to follow them. There wasn't a single thing about how events were proceeding that boded well for any of them, but he still held out hope it would work well in the end. At the very least for the others.

Leaning back on a nearby cupboard after finished his wincing face, Sen crossed his arms and looked towards the floor. "Hey, Kyomu," he asked, "any idea what we're supposed to do with our internship now?"

"Huh? Oh." This time he did wince. "Yeah, that... I dunno. It's not like we booked any backups or anything, and it's probably way too late to get a new one. Guess I'll just chill at the orphanage until classes start up again."

Once again, Midoriya blinked. "Wait, what happened to your internship hero?"

"A villain attacked us while we were answering an emergency call," Kyomu answered. "He got iced by a villain."

The short teen cupped his cheek. "Oh no! So... so did he...?"

"No, I mean he literally got iced. Villain had a freezing Quirk."

"Oh! So he's okay, then?"

The black-haired teen shook his head. "No, he got froze so hard he shattered into pieces. They had to clean his remains up with a sponge."

Midoriya blanched. Behind him, Iida and Todoroki had similar looks of sympathy. "O-oh. That's too bad."

Kyomu nodded. "Yeah, he was... honestly, I didn't really have that high an opinion of the guy. But a hero's a hero, y'know? Shouldn't have had to die, even if I didn't like him all that much. Especially like that." A moment of silence passes, and everybody tilted their heads down. "Anyways, how are you three doing with your injuries?"

They all raised their heads back up. Todoroki chose to answer the question. "The injuries me and Midoriya received were, all things considered, very light." He looked towards Iida. "His, on the other hand..."

"It's not ideal," Iida said. "Stain's blade caused severe damage to my tendons. The doctors threw around the idea if possible permanent damage, but it's nothing I can't overcome." He clenched his uninjured hand and flashed a confident smile. "That's what heroes do after all, correct? Surmount any wall laid before them? That's what UA has been teaching us, at the very least. This isn't so different in comparison."

"Not the worst outlook on it all," Kyomu admitted, right before his head snapped to the door. "Someone's about to walk through the door. Probably the police guy."

Right on cue, the door handle to the room's door turned fully, and the door opened. Two police officers, one with glasses and one who had a dog's head and more than a few studs and stars on his uniform stepped into the room. Trailing behind them was a shorter old man in a yellow hero costume, and another, younger hero who gazed at Iida sternly before closing the door behind him. Midoriya and Iida tensed up a considerable amount, while Sen and Todoroki kept a level head. Kyomu crossed his arms and leaned back on the closest wall.

"Most of you know who I am already, but to those of you who don't, I'm Hosu's City's chief of police." He regarded each and every one of them with a glance of his eyes, and noticeably looked at Kyomu the longest, before proceeding. "You know why I'm here. One of you is guilty of the unauthorized capture of a wanted villain. Three of you are guilty of fighting a notorious villain and serial killer and possibly obstructing in official hero duties. One of you is guilty of both."

"'Obstruction?'" Kyomu echoed with a scoff. "That's rich. We fought him to a weakened state. We weren't even near the guy when the heroes took a crack at him. If anything, we helped; not our fault the heroes botched the shot we gave 'em."

Both police officers gave Kyomu a withering glance. "Young man, you're on the thinnest ice out of everyone in this room," the chief advised. "It won't due to speak out of term with us at this juncture."

The teen glared at the two officers, but shifted his head over to his friends. Midoriya was glaring at him, and Sen was sending him a pleading look with his own eyes. He held his tongue of any further words and looked down at his feet.

"As it stands" the police chief continued, "the actions you all committed could easily be seen as vigilantism, an act which is highly illegal in all areas if Japan, which I trust you all realize. The law could have you all expelled from UA, perhaps even be convicted as villains. You're all quite aware of this?"

"If we hadn't intervened..." This came from Todoroki, whose voice had gotten rather heated after hearing the chief's words. "A hero and my friends would have died. You're saying I should have stood aside and done nothing as a murderer had his way with them?"

"I second that notion," Kyomu said.

The other officer in the room pushed up his glasses. "And what of the ice villain at the museum?" he asked, facing both Kyomu and Sen. "By all rights, you should have just run away and called for assistance from heroes. You were in no position where you were forced to fight him in self-defense."

"In my defense, officer, I just saw a grown man turn into slush about two minutes prior to making that decision." After saying this Kyomu shifted his shoulders and uncrossed his arms, only to cross them the opposite way. "We were a bit worried about our personal safety and that he would come after us. He just killed a pro like it was nothing, so who's to say he wouldn't mind killin' a couple of teens? It seemed like the most rational decision at the time."

Technically it was true, but none of it was at all the reason why they had actually gone back and defeated that villain. Kyomu had just really wanted to defeat him. Sen, quite unfairly now that the teen looked back on it, had been persuaded. But there wasn't any way they could know that, and it wasn't like the villain knew their motivations.

The two policemen looked at each other, and the officer nodded at the chief. In the back, the two heroes shook their heads. "As it stands, it's my duty to uphold the law. And according to the law, I'm to bring all five of you in for counts of vigilantism and obstruction of proper justice.

"But, we're not going to do that."

The reactions were spontaneous across the board. Kyomu's eyes had widened a considerable amount in surprise. Todoroki's eyes widened less so, while Midoriya loudly gasped out in shock. Iida's jaw dropped open a comical length. Sen's reaction was the most extreme out of all of them, as he'd collapsed onto the floor and began to wheeze in an out very loudly.

Kyomu coughed. "Uh, Sen?" he asked. "You okay good buddy of mine?"

"Y-yeah, fine. Agh." He waved a hand in Kyomu's general direction. "Oh man, I've been holding my breath for, like, forty or fifty seconds and went all lightheaded when the chief of police says he's letting us off the hook."

The dog-headed policeman glanced down at Sen, a bemused look briefly crossing his features, before he let a breath out and faced the five teens fully. "Were it not for the efforts of Eikyo and Shinka, a murderous villain who had escaped only to return to a life of crime and murder heroes was brought to justice. And, while Stain had eluded justice for the time being, if it weren't for the efforts of the young men before me, the heroes wouldn't have had even a chance at capturing him. Their lack of success notwithstanding, all five of you... you did more good than any harm when is all said and done. Unfortunately, due to the law, we cannot publicly acknowledge this." Faces all around began to tense. "So here's what we're going to do. Your names will not be mentioned anywhere in any news or media outlet. As far as the public will be concerned, you five will have had no part in the capture or aided attack against any single villain that night." He looked at Kyomu and Sen. "You sent for heroes the second your intern hero was killed in action, and they took care of the villain." He looked at the other three. "The heroes you were shadowing happened to be at the scene to fight Stain. Todoroki, considering you were shadowing your father, this works especially well in your case. You were all placed in unfortunate circumstances but had no actual part in anything whatsoever. If you accept this, the law will look away from this all and you can return to your lives."

As far as offers went, it was the best thing they could have hoped for. It was practically a free pass with no strings attached. Midoriya certainly looked elated at the prospect of it. Sen even stopped dry-heaving at the floor and was looking up at the policemen in absolute wonder.

"So in exchange for all the credit, you'll let us go," Todoroki summarized. He didn't look especially as pleased as everyone else. "Is that about right?"

Kyomu shrugged. "Hey, I couldn't care less about credit as long as we aren't arrested." He looked up at the police chief. "Sure. I'll take that deal. Sen?" His friend was rapidly nodding in choked silence. "Yeah, Sen says yeah, too."

"Of course we'll accept!" Midoriya's nodding couldn't have been more enthusiastic. Todoroki maintained his glare towards the policemen, but he, too, eventually nodded.

"It's settled, then." The police chief closed his eyes, smiling to himself. The bespectacled officer near him even let out a small smile.

And in an act that surprised every teen in the room, both the policemen bowed. The stunned silence was broken when the dog-headed chief spoke.

"We're sorry to have ever put you in this kind of position to begin with," he said. "As men of the law, it's our responsibility to make sure incidents like this never happen. But, that said, events such as this are more often than not out of our control."

It was, all things considered, the best possible outcome to the entire situation. Kyomu had went into this room expecting serious punishment. Expulsion, even possible imprisonment. He'd even resigned himself to that fate and had spent a good portion of his mental capacity debating whether to evade capture or not if they were in fact going to be arrested. He just didn't think getting off scot-free was in the cards.

But, it was what it was. The rest of the meeting had calmed down considerably. The policemen had left while Midoriya had shrunken back into his bed as the old, yellow-costumed hero, who Kyomu assumed to be his intern hero, berated him mercilessly. The other hero, likewise, was scolding Iida, though he wasn't yelling at the top of his lungs and Iida looked about as steadfast as possible given the circumstances.

Todoroki had his hands full trying to keep Sen from hyperventilating.

 _"Is what just happened illegal? Or is it so legally oblique that it doesn't even matter? Is that even a thing?"_ Kyomu though as he leaned back against the wall, watching the proceedings in front of him. _"Here I thought heroes didn't lie because that wasn't just, and that the police followed a similar code. But they're obscuring the truth to cover themselves and us. So is it justice? Just 'cause they said it was?_

 _"... Eh, probably not, but I don't really care."_

He shrugged off the wall. Maybe it was a mistake; it wouldn't be the first time the justice system had done something wrong instead of right, even if inadvertently. He was just happy their mistake wasn't sending somebody to prison this time.

Reaching for the door handle, Kyomu stopped himself and looked back at the gaggle of voices behind him. Everybody was still rather heated, but the grim atmosphere had long since faded. Thoughts of the lonely days he was about so be spending popped into his mind before he took his hand off the handle and walked back towards the center of the room with the others.

A few more hours of visiting couldn't hurt.

* * *

The passing week, as far as Kyomu was concerned, went about as normal as could expect. There had been attempts at making another internship, which eventually culminated into swapping emails with the principal of UA himself. He'd personally wanted to do it over the phone, but the orphanage's own phone had been broken for months. Fortunately the computer ran fast enough to accept emails.

Alas, openings for new internships were closed for the time being, which meant that there was little for the teen to actually do in the meantime. He'd laze about the orphanage, telling the other children about UA when they wouldn't let him sleep and would cling to him despite his efforts to shake him off. He and Sen would occasionally email each other, as he was the only other person in the class not interning. Unfortunately, he was about as bored as Kyomu was with nothing to do. And so it went for a week until classes finally resumed. It was the two's hope that getting back to class would finally take their minds off their failure of an internship.

Then it turned out that the entirety of class 1-A was talking about nothing but their internships, which sent the two teens into a severe state of morose as everyone chatted happily around them.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Ashido was jumping up and down in front of Tsuyu while clapping her hands excitedly. "You seriously helped stop a smuggling cartel!?"

"It wasn't anything too special. Ribbit." The sheer flippancy of the remark caused the two nearby teen boys to spiral into an even further state of depression. "What about you guys?"

Besides the two girls, Jiro shrugged. "Eh, nothing that was all that. Used my ears to scout around stakes, participated in some hostage situations, stuff like that." She turned her head to the side, and seemed to be the first person to notice the two boys who looked like they would rather be anywhere else at the moment. The other two followed her example and similarly recoiled. "Geez, what happened at your guys' internship?"

Kyomu sighed. Heavily. "It was... less than ideal." He looked down at his desk. "We don't wanna talk about it."

"We shouldn't have come in today, man." Sen had already banged his head onto his desk. "This sucks."

"I don't know what your problem is, but your internship couldn't have been anywhere near as bad as his." Smirking, Jiro lifted one of her earlobes and pointed it behind her. "Check it out."

The two looked in the direction she pointed to. They saw Bakugo there, and then did a double take when they saw the haircut he had. His bleached hair, normally spiked to a wild degree, was slicked onto his scalp so much that he actually looked like a presentable person. Kaminari and Kirishima were bold enough to actually laugh in his face about it. Bakugo looked like he was about to eat them alive.

Looking to the side at each other, Sen and Kyomu non-verbally decided that this was a likely course of action. Afterwards, Sen's face planted back into his desk while Kyomu turned towards Jiro.

"Did Bakugo's hero intern get turned into a human slushie?" he asked.

"Uh... no." Jiro lifted an eyebrow. "Did something happen at the internship to make you two so mopey?"

"Yeah. Our intern hero got turned into a human slushie," Kyomu answered. All three girls recoiled at this. "We didn't really do much interning. At all. 'Cause, y'know, our intern died day one."

To the side, the bald teen moaned into his desk. "I can never drink another slushie again because of you, dude."

Kyomu rolled his eyes, and then looked away towards the other side of the class after the girls gave quick condolences before quickly scurrying away. Everybody around seemed to be in a similar state of excitement. Iida was happily chatting things up with Tokoyami, who was brooding on his desk like always. Todoroki even seemed to be making good conversation with their classmates.

The exception to all this was Midoriya. He was sitting alone at his desk and staring at his phone. It looked out of place enough that Kyomu got up off of his desk and walked over to shorter teen's own desk. He'd even managed to sit down at its edge without him noticing. He did take notice when Kyomu flicked his forehead.

"Ouch." Rubbing the spot he'd been flicked, Midoriya put the phone down and glared up at the aggressor. His eyes widened when he saw it was Kyomu. "Oh, Shinka. Hey. How are you doing?"

"'Bout as good as could be expected, all things considering," he answered. "I'm... mostly glad to be back and have that week behind me."

The other teen nodded. "I can understand that." Frowning, he looked down at his phone. "I haven't been completely stress free."

"Because of what's on your phone?" Kyomu asked. "What's on there? Bad news?"

"Bad ne- you don't know?" When the taller teen shook his head, Midoriya flipped the phone's screen over for Kyomu to see. "Somebody actually made a video about Stain right after he got away from us. Can you believe that?"

"A video on Stain?" Kyomu leaned in. "The first I'm hearing of this."

He leaned in closer to the phone's screen, which prompted Midoriya to play the video. It would alternate between black screens with large, emboldened red words to actual footage of Stain while a narrator gave what approximated as the man's own biography. His real name, some light history on him, even some video of him publicly protesting about heroes. More alarmingly was footage of him in the middle of the street that night, proclaiming his motivation behind killing heroes with a practically salivating mouth.

 _"Where did the person who made this video even get that footage?"_ As far as he knew, none of the heroes present had possessed a camera. He certainly didn't have one on him. A street camera? He hadn't checked to make sure. Even if that were the case, that kind of footage was hardly public. Then again, he had no clue as to how easy it would be to acquire footage like that.

"I just... why would somebody make something like this?" Midoriya asked with a sad frown as he stowed his phone away. "They're glorifying his twisted ideals. The ideals of a murderous villain. What if other villains start thinking he's right? And Stain... all this'll do is encourage him. He's still out there, Shinka."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Stain was a loon, but then again so are most villains. That's why heroes like us are around, right?" Kyomu leaned forwards and lightly punched Midoriya on the shoulder. "Could be this video will be that: a video, and that nothing much will come out of it. Maybe it will inspire a psycho or two out there. I don't know. But whatever happens won't matter since heroes'll still be around, right?"

Midoriya didn't look too convinced. "But Stain-"

"Don't worry about Stain, Midoriya. I don't think he'll ever be a problem again."

The short teen blinked. "Huh? Why not?"

With a sigh, Kyomu leaned back on the desk. There was a lot of things he could tell Midoriya; the truth certainly wasn't one of them. Not many of those things would likely calm Midoriya though, outside of telling Stain was dead. Speculation and logic could only carry him so far. But, he had to try. To put Midoriya at ease at the very least, or attempt it at any rate.

He just hoped whatever he said sounded believable.

"Stain cut it pretty close last week. Surrounded by heroes, he almost caught right there in the act. And we haven't heard a thing about him other than this video ever since," Kyomu reasoned. "Maybe he finally realized that his work is done. He set out to spread a message, and in doing that his work produced this video to spread his message for him. He doesn't really have a reason to continue killing heroes since everybody knows his motive now."

"That's... no, that can't be it." Midoriya frowned as he rubbed at his chin. "His conviction... I could feel it just from standing right next to him, Shinka. He believes so strongly in his ideal that he would go to any length to see them through. He _has_ gone to any length. Just because people are getting the message doesn't mean he would stop. Not when there's other heroes out there he considers 'fakes' that need to be purged." He shook his head. "I just don't think he would stop."

"Then why hasn't he murdered anybody?" Kyomu questioned. "He's had ample time."

"Maybe he's been recovering. We did injure him pretty badly. Fractured his bones, maybe even broke some. It could be he's currently in no condition to continue operating. And it's not like there's a hospital out there that would admit him without calling the authorities."

Kyomu nodded. "True. There is that fact that he almost got caught that night, too," he added. "Maybe he thinks it's getting too dangerous and quit. I can't tell you the guy's thought process. But-" he pointed a finger in Midoriya's face, "- I don't think he'll ever be a problem again whatever the case is, Midoriya. We don't have to worry about Stain."

The teen in front of him didn't look so satisfied with Kyomu's answer, and softly knocked his finger out of the way with a huff. "I'm not so sure about that, Shinka, but you sound so confident." His eyes aimlessly wandered up to the ceiling. "Maybe... maybe Stain is out of the picture for good. It's far from ideal; I'd rather see him behind bars more than anything else. But I guess we should just focus on our hero studies in the meantime, huh?"

"That's about all we could hope for at this point." Good enough for him- he just wanted Midoriya to stop worrying about Stain. With this mindset, he'd fade from the teen's attention in time. A mere memory above all else.

If Kyomu had a say in it, he'd be nothing but a fading memory from everyone's mind. Such was the fate he'd subjected him to. But he didn't think that video released would make that a reality. It was more likely he'd make history than anything else. But that wasn't for him to brood over at the moment. Mostly because he heard large footsteps loudly approaching from the hall.

"Looks like it's that time again," Kyomu said as he pushed off the desk. Everybody else had already retreated to their own desks, and Kyomu was quickly making his way to his own. He'd barely managed to sit down before the doors nearly flew off their hinges.

"ONCE AGAIN, CLASS, I HAVE ARRIVED!"

* * *

Hero studies was one of Kyomu's more-liked classes. It wasn't that surprising, as that was true for about the entirety of class 1-A. It was, in a word, liberating. He actually got to do something creative and not mindlessly blow through math and science and language problems. All Might's teaching methods were, admittedly, a bit eccentric and unorthodox, but they at least kept the class on their toes. Kyomu had fun with it, at least. He even got to use his Quirk most of the time. It was just... freeing.

Took his mind of recent events at any rate.

Today's class found them in Field Gamma, one of the many vast and grossly expensive training grounds the school had that Kyomu had given up calculating the cost of. The official description was a industrial complex meant to simulate a modern environment. In reality, Field Gamma was a mass of metal piping and tubing that looked less like an industrial complex and more like something one would see in an alien spaceship. It was a veritable ocean of mish-mashed metal that was thicker than jungle and so randomly placed that it was nearly impossible to unravel with the eye alone. In a word, a mess.

Apparently they were racing in it. Two groups of five and two groups of six racing to the center of the metal mass one group at a time to get to All Might, who was posing as a citizen in danger. Straightforwards enough as it went. Faster students would get better scores.

"And remember, students," said All Might with his large-as-life smile, "try to keep property damage to a minimal, hm?"

The fact he was pointing at Bakugo was not lost on anybody, especially the Explosion user, who grumbled under his breath.

Five minutes later, All Might had hid himself in the metal jungle. Kyomu was lined up at the starting line, which may as well have been anywhere with how chaotic the complex was, with four other students. Tokoyami and Sero was to his left, Mineta and Tsuyu was to his right.

"Man, I can't wait for this!" It was hard to see Sero's expression, as his costume had a helmet with a black-tinted visor. It was a helmet which shape was that of a common tape dispenser, something Kyomu doubted was a design coincidence. "I picked up all sorts of new tips during my internship! How about you guys?"

"A-ah, well, you know..." Mineta was smiling sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Mt. Lady was... she was... insightful is something I can say, I guess." He sighed. "Shinka, how well do you think I'm gonna do here?"

The black-haired teen sent the shortest teen in class a withering and pitiful look. "Depends. Are we allowed to use our Quirks to sabotage each other?" he asked.

"All Might forbade it," Tokoyami answered.

"Ah. Shame. You're hosed, dude." Kyomu glanced up at the large countdown timer above them. About twenty seconds left. "You coulda just glued us all to the ground and walked to All Might otherwise, Mineta."

Mineta's shoulders slumped. "Yeah," he muttered. "Bet you won't be able to beat Sero to All Might, though. Void's cool and all, but Sero's got you beat in mobility."

"Eh?" Kyomu blinked. "What're you talkin' about? I'm just gonna walk right up to the guy with Void. It's gonna take me, like, three seconds. Four, max."

There was a silence among the five students, with one looking forwards confidently while the other four glanced between themselves before looking back at Kyomu with unsure looks. Tsuyu was the one to break the silence with a croak.

"I thought you could only make portals to places you can see?" she said, poking a finger into her cheek.

Kyomu nodded. "Yeah. So I'm gonna make some that takes me up into the sky." He pointed upwards. "And when I see the center with All Might I'll just make some more and drop right next to him."

"Oh." A weak chuckle escaped Sero. "That ain't fair, man."

"Probably, yeah," he agreed.

Needless to say that when the countdown timer hit zero and a loud buzzer rang, Kyomu made short work of making it to the center. While everyone else had bolted forwards, he dropped down into a portal only to fall straight from the sky, and then drop into a third black portal only to hop up from a fourth and final.

He landed on his with without a single sound, brushing himself off slightly as he looked from side to side. Nobody else was here yet, and there were cameras and monitors placed all throughout the center to monitor the students. Frankly speaking, the other four weren't even close, though Sero was making good headway with his tape compared to everyone else. When he looked behind himself, he saw All Might there with his smile slightly forced with a bead of sweat going down his face.

"O-oh! Young Shinka!" he greeted. "I... didn't expect you to make it here so quickly!"

Kyomu shrugged. "Yeah, being able to walk across space can do that. Races are pretty skewed in my favor 'cause of Void."

"I see!" The hero coughed into his fist, and even somehow managed to make the awkward gesture seem confident given his stature.

After that was around thirty seconds of them trying their best not to awkwardly stare at each other, given the silence among them as they waited for other students to arrive. Kyomu was rolling back and forth on his heels while All Might was glancing repeatedly at the monitors. The silence was finally broken when All Might cleared his throat.

"I'm, uh, sorry to hear what happened on your internship," he said. "Being a hero is a dangerous line of work, and it's good for heroes to know that the stakes are this high. Still, to have witnessed such a thing during an educational outing was... unfortunate."

"Don't worry about it." Now Kyomu was beginning to anxiously glance at the monitors.

"Mm. Well, if you want to talk about it, my door's opened like always."

Kyomu's eyes continually flicked between All Might and the monitors. "You're kind to offer and all, but... hm." He stopped himself and scratched the side of his face. "Actually, there was one thing I wanted to get your opinion on. Later, that is. If that isn't too much to ask?"

"Of course not!" The thumbs-up given to the teen was practically brimming with some positive emotion Kyomu could quite describe. So much that the fist was practically glowing. He wasn't sure that was healthy. "But we'll have to save that for later! It looks like young Sero is about to make his way here!"

"Yeah." Kyomu looked up. Strips of tape were floating in the air a short distance away from them as Sero's form swung into view. "Yeah, that'll work just fine."

* * *

He wasn't anywhere near the limit of how far he could count in terms of how many times he'd spent standing outside the door to this room. The lounge All Might sat in when he wasn't teaching. If he kept on coming here, though, Kyomu suspected that he'd eventually start to risk losing that count.

The teen wasn't too positive as to why All Might always insisted on him talking. Maybe he offered this to all his students and he was one of the few to pick his offer up, though, seeing as he was All Might of all people, Kyomu didn't really see that being true. Maybe he was trying to help him because of his family issues and didn't believe Kyomu when he said he was fine. The fact he'd caught him having a panic attack in a bathroom that one time didn't really help all that much.

And if he was being perfectly honest, Kyomu didn't even know if he was okay.

But, he didn't want to delay the hero too much. He just had something on his mind that he wanted to clear up, and then he would be back to the orphanage for the day. So he reached for the door handle as quickly as possible in order to get this over with.

To his surprise, the door handle turned on its own. When the door opened, he'd fully expected All Might or another teacher to be on the other side. He was even more surprised to see it was Midoriya, who, in a showing of equal surprise, blinked up owlishly at him.

"Shinka?" Midoriya started, and then quickly shuffled out of the doorway while closing the door slightly behind him. "Wha-what are you doing here? The day is over."

"I know. I came here to see All Might."

For some reason, that statement seemed to put the smaller teen in a sense of alarm. "R-really? Why?"

Kyomu shrugged. "We, uh, talk. Sometimes. He's..." He looked to the side and rubbed the back of his neck. "Counseling me or something, I guess. I don't know. He just offered to talk with me from time to time and I said yes."

"Oh, I see. That sounds like him." His green eyes flicked to the door and back to Kyomu. "Maybe wait a few minutes, though? All Might, he's... I mean, he's very busy, so-"

"This about his shrinkage problem?"

"Don't say it out loud!" The fact that Midoriya had actually bolted forwards and stood up on his toes to clamp a hand over Kyomu's mouth to muffle him would have been comical if it weren't for the fact the act made Kyomu extremely confused. "It's a secret not a lot of people know, and... wait." Slowly, he unclamped his hand from the other teen's mouth and furrowed his brows up at him. "How do you know about his-" he looked from left to right and cupped his mouth in a whisper, "- his health issue?"

The taller teen almost chuckled at what he saw. Unfortunately, for no particular reason, he didn't feel like it. He did briefly crack a grin, though.

"He showed me his 'radical form' in one of our talks. Figured he owed me some thanks since I saved his life and everything." He hummed and looked past Midoriya and at the door. "Gotta say, I was more than a bit shocked, but I guess it isn't too surprising he'd receive some kind of serious wound. He's been the most popular hero for decades now, and the line of work is pretty hazardous."

"Yeah." Midoriya let out a chuckle. It sounded rather nervous. "That's All Might for you."

"Mm." Slowly, Kyomu looked back down at his classmate. "Say, Mido."

"Yeah?"

"Why are you talkin' with All Might? And for that matter, why do you know about his secret? Thought that was a pretty big thing to be keepin' under wraps."

Nervousness briefly shifted into alarm, though Midoriya quickly warded it off with another nervous chuckle. "All Might's been... helping me with my power!" he quickly explained. "You know, my Quirk! Super Power! He's been giving me some pointers and tips here and there since our powers are kind of similar, and I needed the extra helped. So he volunteered to donate some of his time, and we got to know each other better!"

All things said and done, it sounded completely reasonable. Out of everyone in the whole class, Midoriya was the one who struggled the most with his power. He'd been making incremental improvements- everybody saw that in training earlier today when he was hopping from pipe to pipe- and didn't even hurt himself anymore. Plus, he was a big All Might fan. Practically everyone in class knew considering he practically scribbled his face everywhere in his notebooks. It made sense that he would go to All Might for help.

Still, though. Kyomu didn't know why, but Midoriya seemed incredibly nervous. So nervous that he was putting on a forced smile. Generally speaking, Midoriya was a shy person. He practically shrunk in on himself whenever he talked with somebody, but a reaction this extreme was a bit too much. Especially when they knew each other.

"Is something wrong, Midoriya?" Kyomu asked.

The other teen blinked. "Huh? Wrong? What-"

Kyomu's head shot forwards before Midoriya could even finish speaking. He clamped his mouth shut, almost squeaking in the endeavor, and stood completely still as Kyomu leaned his head centimeters from the side of the shorter teen's head.

 _"He's sweating... it's not much, but it's there."_ He leaned his head forwards, more towards Midoriya's face. _"He's breathing a bit heavier, too. And his blinking... but maybe that's because I'm invading his personal space. Actually, all these reactions are probably because of that. I didn't think this one through."_

"Shinka?" Midoriya took a hesitant step back. "Can you stop sniffing me? Please? It's... it's weird."

The taller teen stepped back. "Sorry," he apologized. "Midoriya, are you...?" He stopped himself, and then looked at the wall clock nearby. He winced slightly when he saw that a few minutes had already gone by. He could technically afford to miss his train, but he'd prefer to get home on time to finish his school work. "Never mind. I'm running a bit late," he said. "Can I go through?"

"Sure." He moved to the side to allow Kyomu to reach for the door. "See you tomorrow, Shinka."

"Mm. Same." He gave Midoriya a curt nod as he grasped the door handle. He only twisted if halfway, however, before stopping himself to turn and look at Midoriya's back. _"The way he was acting earlier... was he lying?"_ he internally wondered. _"Was... naaah, no way. It's Midoriya. He's the purest boy in the whole class, right next to Koda. No way he lies."_

With those thoughts voided from his memory, he opened the door and quickly closed it behind him. He breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw it was just All Might in the room.

He looked about the same as the last time he saw him in his shrunken- deflated?- form. Even had on the same off-yellow teaching suit. He initially looked up at surprise when he saw a student barge in, but quickly relaxed when he saw it was just Kyomu.

"Ah. Young Shinka." He cleared his throat and gestured to the couch in front of him. "Please, have a seat. And, er, could you maybe knock next time?" he asked. "I know students don't normally barge in here and you were invited and everything, but I still have this to hide, you know?"

"Sorry about that." Kyomu quietly sat down on the couch, and then slung one leg over the other while leaning back with his hands behind his head. "I wanted to talk about something that I heard while on my limited internship. It's been... bugging me ever since I heard it." He paused and closed his eyes. "I put it out of my mind for a bit. Didn't even think about it during the fight with Stain. There was so much on my mind afterwards that I couldn't even remember it. All that time I spent afterwards, though, at the orphanage, it made me think about it a lot."

All Might hummed in understanding, and locked his fingers in under his angular chin. "I think I know what you're talking about. It's about that hero you were interning with, right? Null-man? Seeing somebody die will always be tragic, young Shinka, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn his death affected you deeply."

"Nah, not really."

"Erk!" Had Kyomu opened his eyes, he would have seen the small spurt of blood that sprayed between All Might's teeth as he violently contorted in shock. "A bit callous, don't you think?" he asked as he wiped the blood away with a handkerchief.

This time, Kyomu did open a single eye. It rested on All Might's bloodied chin for a moment before raising to meet his own sunken eyes. "I'm used to it. Seein' someone die isn't really that special," he answered before closing his eye once more.

"That's..." All Might cleared his throat shortly after releasing a wet cough. "I... suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, given it's you we're talking about here. So what did you want to talk about?"

Kyomu hummed. "Null-man told me something right before he died. I just wanted to ask... well, not really about that, but... hm..." He let out an annoyed sound as he opened his eyes and leaned forwards on the couch as his hands fell into his lap. "You're a seasoned hero. You've been at it for decades. Must've risked your life for the sake of others thousands of times by now."

"Tens of thousands, but nobody's counting."

"... Guess not," he muttered, "but regardless, let's just imagine for a second that on one of these rescues, we'll say one about a decade ago, you lost your life saving somebody's else's life. You were in a really bad disaster zone, the villain you were fighting had a Quirk that perfectly countered you, I dunno. Hypothetically speaking, let's say that you died."

Slowly, All Might nodded along to Kyomu's words. "But I managed to save the person I set out to save?"

"For sure, for sure. That's what heroes do, right? Risk their own lives to save lives. They put themselves in the line of fire so civilians don't have to, like soldiers. They get the jobs done that cops can't do because they can use their powers. Sometimes they die in the line of duty, like cops and soldiers. It's to be expected. It's for the benefit of those they choose to defend. Those with strength protecting those without." Kyomu gestured to All Might. "But you're All Might. You're the biggest hero around and then some. Your death would have serious ramifications in both the hero and villain world. Without you, the walking deterrent of villain activity walking around, it's not hard to imagine villain activity would be on the rise. Morale in heroes and society in general would take a big dip, too. Am I wrong?"

"Hm. What you're saying isn't exactly untruthful." The hero's head slowly turned to the side and out to the large window behind them. "Symbol of Peace is a serious title. It's kept major villain activity at bay for years now. If I were to just suddenly disappear without someone to replace me, especially way back then, and even worse to a villain... it wouldn't be catastrophic, but the resulting resurgence in villain activity would be worrying to say the least."

"Yeah. You die, and now people in the streets are dying 'cause there's suddenly more villains." Kyomu say back on the couch. "At least you managed to give your life savin' that old lady crossin' the street, right?"

A beat paused between them. The student remained completely still, but still maintained eye contact on a deflated All Might, whose darkened eye sockets widened for a moment before settling back into a deepened scowl.

"What, exactly, are you trying to get at?" he asked.

"I don't know, All Might. You tell me," Kyomu said with a roll of his wrist. "Is it really okay for a hero to sacrifice their life for just _anybody_?"

"Of course it is," he answered immediately. "You've already answered your own question. We live to defend the people no matter the personal cost. It's what you came here to learn."

Kyomu shot forwards on the couch. "It's not just personal cost, though. It's others," he said. "How many people would hypothetically die just because you managed to save _one_ person? Few dozen, hundred? Couple hundred, maybe? And I'm just talkin' Japan here. A death like yours would send out waves across the whole world. All because you saved one. Single. Person." He accentuated every word by leaning forwards ever so slightly at every utterance.

"It's not about numbers," All Might argued. "You can't just... quantify lives like that, young Shinka. Lives are precious and unique, and you can't claim any one life is more valuable than the other, or that one single person is more important than a group of people or vise versa. We save lives no matter what. And when we fall in the line of duty, there's other heroes to replace us."

"Yeah. Right." Kyomu flopped his back against the couch. "Why's my family dead, then?"

The weakened man in front of the teen went still at his words. His sockets had even widened in mild shock once more, while Kyomu's own eyes narrowed and bored into him.

"Null-man told me about this hero that patrolled my old neighborhood. Apparently, this hero had a hearing Quirk and worked nights. Guy liked that shoulda been able to hear what was happening at my house and arrived to save everyone since my mother was screaming. He couldn't, though. Because he sacrificed his life to save some old lady that died a week later of natural causes. Nobody ever even replaced his patrol route. That's why there wasn't any heroes there that night to save us." He crossed his arms and shifted his gaze from All Might to the floor. "He could have done something. Coulda saved 'em, maybe. But he just had to go and save that lady."

"Young Shinka..." All Might swallowed heavily and rubbed a hand across his forehead. The way he said his name almost made it sound like he aged a decade right there. "Nobody could have predicted something like that happening. You can't blame a hero for dying to save a life when they _could_ have done something. What happened to your family was truly unfortunate, but... you said it yourself. People become heroes to sacrifice themselves for others. Self sacrifice... that's the essence of being a true hero, young Shinka."

Kyomu didn't look convinced of that in the slightest. In fact, he looked even more distressed by All Might's words. "Is it really just self sacrifice if others get hurt because you weren't there to help?" He planted his feet firmly on the floor and stood up. "I don't believe that, All Might. Not after what I found out. I just can't." He crossed by All Might's sofa, and the two's eyes briefly locked on before Kyomu stared back ahead. "When I become a hero, I'll never give my life for another, no matter who they are."

"And what about the ones who will die when you fail to save them at any cost?" All Might argued. "What are you going to do when people you could have saved die when you can't say you did everything you could to help?"

By now, Kyomu had already reached the door leading out of the room. He grasped the door handle and looked back at All Might. "If people die 'cause I wasn't there when I could have been, that's on me," he said. "If I choose my own life over the lives of civilians being threatened by villains, and they die, it's the fault of the villains. Not mine." Kyomu paused. "I got a train to catch. Seeya later."

He turned the door handle and opened the door, and then quickly walked out of the room before closing the door semi-softly behind him. All Might had attempted to reach out to him to get some more words in, but by that time the teen had already left. This left All Might sighing softly while lowering his bony hand, shaking his head and sinking further into the couch he sat on.

* * *

Somewhere, in a city not so far from the one UA was located in, was a city. In this city was a skyscraper that looked as nondescript and ordinary as most skyscrapers went. A large, dark structure of concrete, metal, and glass that stood tall above everybody who walked near it.

As it was, this building was privately owned. Nobody knew who owned it, nor for what purpose it served as, and nobody cared, as nobody who walked past this nondescript skyscraper had any business with it to begin with. It was just another skyscraper in a city filled with thousands of them. As long as whoever owned it paid the appropriate taxes and nothing out of the ordinary was ever connected to the building, nobody would ever investigate just as to what purpose this building served.

Inside one of the topmost room of this skyscraper was a room. There were no lights in this room asides from the sickly green light being shone off the numerous monitors fitted to one of the room's walls, as well as the small lights that shined off the many medical machines and instruments scattered around. Otherwise, the room was an absolute clutter: tubing crisscrossed the ceiling, walls, and ran along the floor, and scientific and medical instruments laid every which way. More odd pieces of machinery and glass tubes filled with various liquids.

There were two people inside this room. One was a mustached, older man dressed in white doctor scrubs who was casually typing away at a terminal with another monitor right next to him that was displaying constantly changing vitals. The second individual was another man, this one wearing a suit, who was seated in a chair in the middle of the room and facing the monitors with his head resting against his hand. Some of the tubes scattered around lead into his arms and neck, and every once an awhile he would release a haggard breath. The monitors in particular were displaying footage from inside the League of Villains' bar hideout from the TV within in. How the suited man was able to see the monitors was a mystery, as everything above his mouth was a featureless and marred with scarred tissue.

"Hero-Killer Stain..." the scarred man muttered in his low voice. "He hasn't been seen at all since his little foray into Hosu city with those heroes he ran into. It's unusual for a man such as him to go into hiding after receiving such a minor failure. Stranger still that we seem unable to locate him."

The doctor at the other side of the room didn't stop typing, though he did raise his head above the monitor to address the other man. "Does that concern you at all, All For One?" he asked.

"No, no. Not at all. It's merely curious." Shifting in his seat, the man, All For One, let out a small hum. "Well, regardless, it all went as expected anyways. Stain's gone viral now due to that video releasing, and in time those who want to unleash their aggression or merely sympathize with the man will flock to somewhere where they can release their urges. Shigaraki in now in a prime spot to be receiving new recruits to his League, and will have to adapt accordingly in order to accommodate them." He smirked slightly. "I'll be eternally grateful to Shinka Hikari for having joined Shigaraki so early to give him some firsthand experience on leading individuals instead of useless, hired meat. How fortuitous indeed that he stumbled upon his League on that fateful day."

"Shinka. Shinka, Shinka, Shinka..." Muttering under his breath, the doctor returned to his monitor. "Where have I heard that name before? It's at the back of my mind, but I can't seem to be able to recall from where..."

"Shinka Hikari was the son of the not-so-prominent hero GACT," All For One explained. "She had a very unusual Quirk she called Genetic Hardening. I had sent one of my agents, Hirose, I believe, to their house in order to wound her under the guise of burglary and send her to you at the hospital. It was my hope to take her Quirk for help in the Nomu project." He let out a long sigh. "But, as it happened, the same night I sent Hirose was the same night that Shinka Hikari decided to erase his home and family from existence with the exception of his brother. I can only surmise that Hirose met a similar fate."

The doctor nodded in understanding. "Ah, right. Shinka. I remember her. She'd brought her son to the hospital and I'd diagnosed him with QBTBE." Humming in satisfaction, he lowered his head back to the monitor.

All For One said nothing, and merely leaned back in his chair with a slowly growing smirk as the doctor typed away in silence. His grin only grew more when the typing slowed to a halt, and for a brief moment the only sound in the room was the soft beeps of the medical machines before the doctor spoke once more.

"Wait, I remember that case very clearly." He typed some more on his monitor. "I have it right here. The only confirmed deaths were the boys' parents. There's nothing of a third casualty in here."

"Strange, is it not?" All For One asked. "And yet, while he was one of my more venerated collection agents, I never heard from Hirose again after that night and was unable to locate him." His head tilted down. On one of the armrests on his chair was two files. The name "Shinka" was printed on both of them, with a picture of a black-haired teenager and white-haired one coming out of each respective file. "Shigaraki speaks very highly of his comrade Shinka Hikari, though he does often complain about the fact he won't bring to light the reason of him completely obliterating his family that night."

A slow hum escaped the doctor as he began to understand. "You... think that the boy used his Quirk because your agent was attacking his family?" he guessed.

"Hm. That's the thing." The two files hovered into the air from some unseen force and quickly floated their way to the doctor's hands, who quickly grabbed the files and began to flip through them. "It's quite obvious that Hirose was involved in the incident, though what part did he play in it? He couldn't have possibly caused that kind of damage or done something to the children mentally to make them forget. His Quirk was a simple stabbing weapon. Their parents similarly didn't have the destructive capability. The only conclusion is that the initial reports were correct."

The doctor nodded along to every word, his eyes briefly flying over the contents of the two folders before he set them down. "So you think Shinka Hikari witnessed your agent in the middle of his collection mission and lashed out with his Quirk while releasing too much power?" He cupped his chin with a gloved hand. "It... isn't outside the realm of possibility. If everything is as it says, then he would have only recently acquired his Quirk. He would have had poor control."

"But the reports aren't entirely accurate, are they?" All For One asked. "They failed to mention Hirose. It isn't that far of a stretch of imagination to believe that other details were misconstrued."

"That's assuming Hirose was even there," the doctor huffed as he returned to his terminal. "If that's what really happened, the children would have mentioned him to the police. With how Quirk laws are, the boy would have still been locked away, but the sentence would have surely been much more lenient given the circumstances. They had absolutely no reason to conceal his identity."

The suited, featureless man said nothing, and instead turned his head slightly to the monitors on the wall. They briefly flickered in a wave of static before the images became clear again. It showed Hikari, bored and leaning on the bar's counter inside the League hideout as he stared vapidly at Shigaraki, who was conversing with Kurogiri.

"What," All For One began, "do you think about their Quirks? The Shinka boys' powers," he elaborated.

"Most of my first impressions mostly lie around practical uses and other boring statistics you wouldn't be too interested in or have already thought of yourself," he succinctly answered. "I'd be much more interested to hear what you have to say about them."

"Never one to mince words, are you, doctor?" All For One dryly chuckled. "Very well. I think Light is a very interesting Quirk with many applications. Were it not for the fact he aligned himself with Shigaraki so soon after escaping, I would have entertained the idea of taking it for myself. Inherently, it's extremely powerful if his known performance thus far is any indicator. If this were the old days, I would have pined very dearly in acquiring it for myself. Maybe then _that_ day wouldn't have ended so disastrously." He sighed and shifted his head slightly. "Its only weakness is that it's completely dependent on an external source of light. Given the circumstances, the Quirk can be extremely deadly or severely weakened." He tapped his armchair. "That's what's so puzzling."

"Puzzling?" the doctor repeated. "What's so puzzling?"

All For One's head slowly turned towards the doctor, and then faced the monitors on the wall once more. "Emitter Quirks such as that often take time in order to build its strength through repeated use and practice, much like a muscle. You know this due to your profession and work with the Nomu. Shigaraki described to me that the only reason Shinka Hikari took so long to escape prison was because he needed to train his Quirk and wanted to be absolutely sure he could escape with the power he'd slowly accumulated in over a decade. And yet that accident... took place the same day he acquired his Quirk. It should have been in its most weakened state." A finger from the hand his head was resting against extended a finger and began tapping on the side of his scarred head. "Furthermore, the incident took place in the dead of night. It matches up with Hirose's usual approach; his cover was that of a burglar, after all. Even if all the lights were on in that house, he shouldn't have had enough power to completely disintegrate that home and the bodies of those he killed. Not even ashes were left from that attack, doctor. Absolutely nothing was left to serve as evidence that anything other than what that report you have says happened." He paused, ceasing his tapping and slowly shaking his head. "No. It was impossible for him to have initiated that sort of attack.

"His brother, on the other hand..." Strong, pale fingers drummed against the armchair. "From what little I know of Void, its mere touch is absolutely destructive. Training for that kind of power would have went into control over raw strength-"

"- Meaning that its power would have been sufficient to..." The doctor had trailed off after finishing All For One's own thoughts, and the small, amused smirk sent his way made him scoff and turn back to his monitors. "That's absurd," he said. "You have a fair bit of points, I'll give you that much, but I'm just not seeing it. Suppose it was Shinka Kyomu that caused that calamity and not his brother. Suppose that Hirose Kenji disappeared that night because he was caught in the blast, and Void made it so that there was no evidence to him ever being there. Why would the children not tell the police about the villain? Why would the wrong brother be incriminated? Shinka Hikari had even admitted to doing it himself."

"That, I could not tell you, my dear doctor. Though I do have my own theory." The suited man's scarred, featureless head focused forwards on the monitors on the wall as the pictures zoomed into Hikari's face. He smiled broadly. "And if it proves to be correct... then I think we will both be treated to an exceptionally wonderful comedy, doctor."


	23. Chapter 23

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Arc 4- Villains**

 **Episode 23- The last exam**

* * *

 _"Shigaraki's been real stressed out as of late."_ Hikari, sitting on a bar stool, was stretched out with his back against the bar and hands interlocked behind his head, with his feet stretched out and crossing one another and his eyes closed. If the other two in the bar didn't know better, they would have thought he was asleep for how still he was. _"Usually that's the case, he got super irritable after USJ, but after that whole Stain thing it's been even worse. Guy flips out if somebody so much as mentions the guy's name."_ He sighed. _"Poor Kurogiri got one of his glasses disintegrated because he complained about a stubborn stain on one of them. It's like the word alone just triggers the boss man into a frenzy. Maybe I should stop wearing nothing but white. Stains real easy."_ He hummed. _"Nah. It'll ruin the unspoken color dynamic between me and Kyomu. Plus I don't really like any other color."_

Most of his leader's anger stemmed from the fact that Stain's name was more relevant than the fact the League of Villains unleashed a trio of monsters onto the street that caused millions in damage and had severely wounded a number of heroes and civilians. Most of that coverage came from that video that was released that was one book short of being his own personal biography. Just because of those words he said. His conviction about making a hero society full of "true" heroes and how the current one was full of fakers.

They hadn't even caught the guy and he was still front-page news compared to the League. That one fact alone was probably the biggest contributing factor to Shigaraki's ire.

But, that was weeks ago. This was the now, and fortunately Shigaraki had calmed down... a marginal degree. Not only that, but he'd been making progress. Apparently Those Nomu had made some big waves- in the underground world, at the very least. He'd even been in talk with somebody attempting to help the League. Hikari had only seen him a few times at the bar; skinny guy. Glasses. Had a long, garish scarf. Evidently Shigaraki's actions were drawing enough attention that people were seeking them out, and this man was their middle man. So Hikari just referred to him as Middles. Or thought of, at least. He'd yet to ever say the name out loud because he was afraid he'd be corrected and he found the name kind of funny to say in his head.

A loud groan caused Hikari to open one of his eyes and peer to his side. Shigaraki was slumped over the bar, as per usual. His fingers were drumming impatiently on the bar counter, and Kurogiri was eyeing the fingers carefully. He seemed nervous if the way he was tightly gripping the glass was any indication.

"Shigaraki," Kurogiri slowly said, setting the glass down one of the shelves behind him, "I understand how stressed you've been, but please be mindful of your fingers."

"I'm not an idiot, Kurogiri," Shigaraki snapped. "How long do you think I've been living with this power? I know not to put all five of my fingers on the damn counter." Sighing, his head slowly picked up off the counter, and he slumped backwards. "How much longer do I need to wait until-?"

"Hello, hello!" A loud voice called out into the bar, followed by three sharp knocks on the door leading in. Three heads turned towards the sound of the noise, with Hikari opening both of his eyes when he saw it was Middles standing at the bar's entrance with a large smile on his face. "Sorry to drop in unannounced, but I brought some people over that I thought you'd be mighty interested in, Shigaraki."

He walked into the bar without so much as another word, with two other figures trailing closely behind him. Shigaraki, his tone irritated, already began grumbling at the man who only smiled and talked back to the League leader. Kurogiri merely observed everything in front of him silently, while Hikari eyed the two who had followed the man in the bar.

One was a younger man, maybe about Shigaraki's age. It was hard to tell, considering the skin around his eyes and lower jaw was seemingly charred and completely useless, with the only thing holding it in place being large staples going into his face. Other from those bizarre features, he seemed pretty normal-looking and even relaxed. Bright blue eyes, dark, messy hair, and he wore a bored expression that wandered around the bar until his eyes landed on Hikari. They briefly widened for a moment, and the two locked eyes for a couple of seconds before he looked away with a small huff.

The other one was a blonde girl about Hikari's age, give or take a year. For a lack of a better term, she seemed completely ecstatic as she hopped from foot to foot as she looked back and forth between Hikari and Shigaraki with big, yellow eyes and a wide, fanged smile. Hikari would have almost called it cute if it weren't for the strange, glazed look she had in her eyes. It was almost disconcerting to the white-dressed teen.

"Are you serious? Some random guy and a brat?" Shigaraki exclaimed from besides him, shaking him from his thoughts. "No way I'm taking them into the League. Get the hell out."

"It doesn't really look like you're in much of a position to be complainin' about membership," the scarred male said as he surveyed the bar in front of him. "I heard Stain had scoped this place out before," he said before fixing his eyes at Shigaraki. "That any true? That you guys follow Stain's teaching?"

"Yeah! Yeah, Stain!" The teenage girl standing besides him began to bounce on her feet as her already-wide smile grew near-manic. "I wanna be just like Mr. Stainy! And you!" She pointed her hand at Hikari. The fact that the hand held a knife didn't put him at ease. "I wanna be in the League if you're in it too Mr. Light!"

"Don't drag me into this," Hikari deadpanned. "Seriously. Just talk to Shigaraki and-"

Were it not for the fact that he was already leaning back into the bar counter, he would have scrambled as far back as possible when the blonde girl scampered forwards towards him. As it was, he was already trapped between her and the bar. So he could do nothing but give an unhappy scowl when she pressed against her body and was centimeters away from touching her face with his.

"Hi there! I'm Toga, and I know all about you! You're the really cool villain that-!"

The are around them lit up in white light, and Toga's yellow irises look up and shrunk when she saw four swords made of white light, two on each side just above Hikari, pointing right at her. "The knife you have is making me uncomfortable. And this is a really big breach of my personal privacy," Hikari said to the girl. "There's only one person I'll let get within stabbing distance like this, and you're not him. So get off."

She was quick to scramble off of him, though the points of the swords still followed her even as she retreated to her previous spot. Besides him, Shigaraki was letting out a high-pitched laugh as the display, while both Kurogiri and the the other two men stared on silently.

"Geez, you're making a really poor first impression if you're getting Shinka all riled up like that. He barely ever gets upset," Shigaraki chortled, and then abruptly stilled and looked at the two villains. "Anyways, something you two said keeps buggin' me. Stain. You keep mentioning Stain." He slowly got up out of his seat, and his hands began to twitch. Both Hikari and Kurogiri sent each other nervous glances. "Stain this, Stain that. Feels like all everybody talks about these days is good ol' Stain the Hero Killer. But what about me and my League? Haven't we done any newsworthy deeds? Why does he get all the attention all of a sudden?" He stopped right in front of the two, and his blood-red eyes shrunk to pinpricks as he stared at the two. "Why the hell are my new _recruits_ talking more about him than me? You're useless. Drop dead."

The man didn't show much sign of hostility, other than the fact his mouth tightened and small amount of blue flame began dancing between his fingers. The girl, conversely, smiled widely as she brandished her knife in a much more open manner. Shigaraki just began clenching his fingers open and closed while he crouched down slightly.

Kurogiri seemed to recognize the position Shigaraki was taking, as some his his black mist began to spread outwards as his yellow eyes widened. "Shigaraki, don't!"

"Quit it, you two," Hikari warned.

The warnings fell on deaf ears as, simultaneously, all three villains lunged towards one another. The other two were quick to act: Black warp gates appeared right in front of Shigaraki's hands, causing them to go through and go out of two portals on opposite sides of the room. Toga had taken one step before four swords of light appeared directly in front of her, while six swords appeared in a circle around the man with blue flames around his hands.

"Shigaraki, I know that you are very cautious over all of this, but now is not the time to be especially _picky_ when the League is in dire need of new recruits!" It was a desperate attempt by Kurogiri to diffuse the situation, but seeing as all three were literally at each others' throats, it seemed the most appropriate response. "Shinka, you agree, don't you!?"

"Yeah, he's right," Hikari agreed. "We're hurting for new blood, and you're trying to murder some of the only people coming up. Get over this Stain thing and calm down."

"Tch." Slowly, Shigaraki removed his hands from the mist portals, while Toga put the knife away and the blue flames around the man's hands dimmed to nothing. Once this was done, the mist portals and white swords disappeared. "You make it sound so easy... but fine. If you two think I should go along with this nonsense." He crossed his arms and leaned backwards. "I already got the girl's name. You. Fire guy. What's your name?"

The man in question let out an airy breath, eyes still as calm as the moment he'd walked into the room. "You can call me Dabi," he answered.

Shigaraki tapped his foot in impatience. "Okay, now what's your real name?"

"Dabi'll work fine."

A soft growl sounded in the back of Shigaraki's throat, causing the pair at the bar to tense up once more. They relaxed when he just stuck a thumb over his shoulder at the bar. "Fine, whatever. Sit over there if you want, Mr. Mysterious. Crazy girl, you keep standing there. I don't think Shinka likes you too much."

She huffed in annoyance, though she did hold her ground and stay in place. Dabi slowly passed Shigaraki while making his way to the bar, while the former was skulking his way over to Middles to talk some more.

 _"Great. He calmed down."_ The white-haired teen was glad to feel the tension leave his shoulders as he re-oriented himself into his previous position and relaxed. Kurogiri continued to clean his drink glasses, though he seemed to keep his yellow eyes trained on Shigaraki.

Hikari, meanwhile, kept a single red eye open as he watched Dabi sit down in the bar stool next to him. He didn't seem to focus on anything at first, though his own eyes eventually wandered over to the teen's relaxed form and stayed there. Some moments passed before he finally decided to speak.

"So. You're the big Villain of Light everybody keeps mumbling about," he said. "What's a guy like you doin' in a dump like this?"

"A dump you decided to come and join?" Hikari asked, causing the other male to roll his eyes. "It was pretty much either this or keep running until the heroes caught me. I have amazing stamina and a good power, but a guy can only run for so long before the ones chasing him catch up."

That was one of the excuses he used for himself, at any rate. One of the least bad-sounding ones.

"Fair enough, I guess." Dabi placed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his stool. "Saw you take out Endeavor on TV. Surprised you didn't kill him. You were in prime position and everything."

"Not really. I collapsed from exhaustion as soon as I got away. I just didn't want the cameras to see it so I could get a breather." Hikari cocked a white eyebrow. "Besides. Killing heroes publicly wouldn't have done me any favors at that juncture. Any reason why you're asking?"

Dabi shook his head. "Nah, not really. Just wanted to make some small talk. We're gonna be workin' together from here on out, yeah? Just thought we should get to know each other."

"Yeah, you're not gonna find many conversationalists here," Hikari said. "Not that I'm not open to the idea. I'm just saying that most people usually just silently brood around here."

"What, all three of you?"

Technically four, but Hikari refrained from mentioning the TV. "You're not too far off the mark," he admitted. "League's been in a slump since we're so low on members. Shigaraki won't admit it, but we really need you guys. Speaking of which: what's the deal with the girl?"

A pale thumb was pointed forwards, which Dabi followed to the blonde girl standing on the other side of the bar. The smile had long disappeared, and a bored expression had placed itself over her face. It didn't stop the fact that she occasionally kept sneaking glances as everyone in the bar while twirling the knife in her hand.

Dabi hummed, than shrugged. "No clue," he said. "All I know is that she's a big Stain fan and has a screw or seven loose. We only met because the guy decided to bring us two to meet you all, but there're a few more wanting to join."

"That so?" Hikari turned his body to face Dabi fully, both eyes open wide and wholly focused on him. Even Kurogiri seemed to pause in his glass cleaning to pay attention to the dark-haired villain. "There's more than just you two?"

"Oh, yeah. Bunch more," he confirmed. "This bar of yours is about to get a lot more crowded. You may just get out of this slump yet."

"A-ah. Cool. That's... that's good." Hikari breathed out a sigh and closed his eyes, and then went back to his relaxed position. _"Man, this place is about to become an even bigger madhouse than it usually is. I guess that's what the whole idea was, but... ugh. Dabi isn't too bad so far. That Toga girl is nuts. Really hoping that all the other people coming here don't try to kill us at first glance."_

He was allowed to hope, even if said hope had a decent margin of failure. He was mostly hoping that Shigaraki wouldn't lose his cool and attack them, or vice versa. If Hikari was being honest, it could go either way from here on out. The thought alone only made him more tired.

 _"Bet Kyomu doesn't have to deal with all this with his hero school buddies,"_ he glumly thought. _"Wonder what my brother is doing right now?"_

* * *

"This ain't where I pictured us being during this time of crisis," Kyomu tiredly demurred as he rested his head against his palm on the table in front of him. Besides him was Sen, who was reading a comic with his feet propped up on the same table. "Our finals for this semester is around the corner, and we're here in a burger joint."

"I wanted to study at McDonalds, but a study group from 1-B already called dibs on the place. And I'm pretty sure those guys hate us." Sen flipped a page in his comic. "Woulda made for a pretty awkward study sesh, you know?"

"One, never say sesh again," Kyomu said. "And two, they don't hate us. It's just a... unhealthy amount of friendly rivalry they have against our class."

Sen snorted, and then turned another page. "Tell that to Monama. Guy has a hard-on for proving his class is better than ours." He set his comic down for a brief moment and sighed, looking out the window to their left. "Guy has such a great power, too. That attitude of his is just so off-putting."

Kyomu immediately disagreed with him. "It's a copy power with a hard time limit. It's nothin' special."

The bald teen next to him made a dismissive grunt, and then turned back to his comic. Kyomu rolled his eyes, and then briefly looked down at the floor where their backpacks laid. Various math, science, and english textbooks were poking out from the flaps, causing him to sigh and stare back forwards at the seats in front of him.

Their first semester at UA was coming to an end, and after that came summer break. A break that, much to the assurance of their ever-serious teacher Mr. Aizawa, wouldn't be a break at all. Something about heroes always being vigilant and training for the future and all that. Because of that, they were to spend their summer at a super-secret training camp out in the woods for training. All summer. It seemed like everybody but Kyomu was excited for that.

Only caveat was that the only ones going were the ones that passed their finals, which would comprise of a written portion and a practical portion, much like the entrance exam. Written portion would be predictable enough. Practical was anyone's guess, though some in the class were theorizing they'd be fighting robots again. Kyomu very much doubted UA would do something so predictable. But they were so unpredictable he had no idea what they would do, or if they would subvert his expectations and go with robots anyways. So he'd kept his mouth shut.

But finals were a week away, and everyone in the class was going on a mad study spree in preparation. Kyomu himself had already memorized all the material taught thus far; he couldn't forget if he tried. So studying for him, as always, was meaningless. But his friend Sen wasn't born with enhanced genetics like him and needed help studying, so he'd opted to help. So far, though, there hadn't been much of any studying going on. Just them sitting in a diner as Sen read comics.

"Maybe you should have taken up Yaoyorozu's offer of studying at her house," Kyomu murmured. "If you were that desperate for help, I mean."

"There was already a large crowd going there," Sen said. "Ashido and Kaminari were in that group. Gonna be a mad house over there." Snickering, he turned away from his comic and faced Kyomu. "Speaking of houses, they texted pictures of her house to me. Wanna see it?"

"Tsuyu showed me earlier in class." Kyomu's fingers started to slowly drum on the table. "Girl's house is worth more than the orphanage I live in and my old house combined. By, like, five. I know her family's rich and everything, but sheesh..."

"Apparently she has butlers, too."

"Mhm, great. Good for her." His tone displaying nothing that hinted towards interest, Kyomu leaned back in his seat and looked towards the door of the diner. "Can't we just start studying now? We've been here for about ten minutes. Who'd you invite to study with us, anyways?" He sent an accusing look at his friend. "It wasn't _the grape_ , was it?"

Sen shook his head. "You mean Mineta? Nah." He paused. "W-why the hell did you say it like that?"

Kyomu shrugged. "I dunno. It's not like I hate the guy or anything. He's actually a pretty nice guy when you get to know him. But then the dumbass does something stupid like look through a peephole into the girls' locker room and then gets his eye poked out by a weird ear tentacle jack thing. He had to wear an eyepatch for a week 'cause of that."

"That was weeks ago, dude. You need to chill." Sen set down his comic and reached into his pocket. He took out his phone, stared at the screen for a bit, and then replaced his phone and picked the comic back up. "Anyways, I invited Bakugo and Kirishima. They'll be here any minute."

" _Them_ of all people?" Kyomu asked in a surprised tone. Kirishima, he could almost understand. They had a friendly enough relationship, not enough to warrant something like this, but with how finals were looking he wasn't too surprised that he was looking for a group to study with, especially considering he didn't have many other people to turn to.

Bakugo, though? Kyomu had fully expected him to be going at it all on his own, like he usually did. Or at least spending all his time in the library alone studying. Like some broody, punkish-looking nerd ready to literally blow up at anyone that bothered him.

 _"Then again,"_ he thought, _"I guess it's not_ too _surprising. He's overly prideful, but not at a level where it affects his performance. He must not wanna take any chances with this finals, so he's asking for help. And he and Kirishima have been getting pretty chummy ever since the Sports Festival. Yeah... I can see it."_

He was fine with the prospect, but he just hoped there wouldn't be too much yelling from Bakugo. A vain hope for Kyomu, but there was always a chance.

"What's so interesting about that manga, anyways?" Kyomu suddenly asked in an effort to kill time until their study group arrived. "It any good?"

"Eh?" Sen shrugged. "Yeah, it's pretty good. Characters have interesting powers and the art is up there. Villain's power in this one is really compelling."

Kyomu hummed. "That so? It any better than Monama's crummy copy power?"

"Pfft, million times better," the bald teen affirmed, shaking the comic in his hand. "There aren't a lotta real-life Quirks that can top the awesome power of _Daughty Deedzu Dun Dirto Cheapu_."

The black-haired teen slowly nodded along to his companion, and then froze when the words hit his ears. Or at the very least the sounds he was semi-confident were supposed to be words. He couldn't really parse together what he had just heard. "Those weren't words, Sen," he said. "Those were a string of sounds resembling words."

"No, it's English."

"'Course." Kyomu shook his head. "You're terrible at English; it's your weakest subject. No wonder it sounded like you were gargling rocks."

Sen opened his mouth to refute that claim, but upon seeing the weary glare from Kyomu, he silently nodded and settled back into his seat with his comic in hand.

"Why does the villain's power have an English name, anyways?" Kyomu questioned. "And why does it sound so janky?"

"Oh, the author has this thing where he names all the characters' powers after English songs and bands he really likes," the other teen explained, causing Kyomu to nod. "I've actually been a fan of his work since I was a kid, and he's been working on this series for a while. A long while. I think for a century or two? Which is surprising since he doesn't look a day over thirty." He shrugged at the other's surprised look. "I dunno, I think he has an anti-aging Quirk or something. He might actually be a first-gen Quirk holder if I remember correctly."

"Ah. Huh." A sudden though came to Kyomu, and his eyes rapidly narrowed at the bald teen. "Wait, wait wait wait wait..." He slowly leaned towards Sen and pointed an accusing finger at him. "Did you name your Quirk after a song just because some weirdo mangaka you admire does it? Seriously?"

To his credit, he didn't show much reaction to the accusation at first. Then his eyes slowly widened and looked towards Kyomu's direction, before rapidly flicking back and forth between the comic and the teen before he slowly set it down. "T-that's nuts," he stammered, "not to mention completely bogus. Nah. No way."

He didn't sound convincing at all to Kyomu. "You totally did, you freakin' geek," he snickered, turning away to hide deep chuckles away from his friend who had obviously heard it by the way his face scrunched up. He quickly huffed and turned back to his comic.

Silence reigned between them for a couple more minutes until they saw the door to the diner open. When they saw familiar heads of deep red and bleached blonde enter and approach them, Kyomu relaxed in his seat whereas Sen hastily reached below the table to stuff his comic in his backpack. Kirishima was the first to sit down on the long seat opposite of them, his mouth adorned with a large, pointed smile thanks to his teeth. Bakugo, looking significantly less enthusiastic, sat right next to him before proceeding to glare at the two across from him.

The first to make a move was Kyomu, who didn't take his eyes off the pair in front of him as he reached down. "Glad you finally decided to grace us with your presence," he said. "You two were takin' forever."

"Bite me. Sidewalks were crammed," Bakugo defended, crossing his arms with a huff. "'Sides, we came here, didn't we? Didn't have to show up for this shitty study sesh."

Kyomu flinched at "sesh" being uttered as he rummaged around in his backpack.

"That's just his way for saying 'thanks for putting up with my attitude, because I really need help studying'," Kirishima translated with a grin, though he grew nervous when Bakugo sent him a scathing glare. "Don't let it get to you. We're both grateful." He slammed his hands down on the table. "So let's get some knowledge pumpin' through our brains, yeah!?"

There were multiple stares from other patrons of the diner that were directed at Kirishima. He immediately grew sheepish and muttered apologies as he sunk back into his seat.

Sen, meanwhile, was sending a confident smirk at Kyomu. "See, man? Bakugo says sesh, too. It's totally a valid word if he says it."

"You're both grammar heathens, and I'll hate you forever because of it." Kyomu finally found what he was looking for in his backpack and sat back up in his seat, holding a notebook and a heavy math book in his hand. "Hope you guys're ready, 'cause good ol' quadratics are up first. For when we need to calculate in a split second how fast a villain chucked a grenade or something."

"You joke, but I bet money there's probably some nutty hero out there that does something like that," Kirishima stated as he brought out his own books along with everyone else. "Alright, let's get crackin'."

Kyomu's worst fears came to life no less than five minutes later when Bakugo began screeching numbers at Kirishima and Sen, who heavily struggled with the math. Kyomu had kept his giggling to a minimum.

* * *

 **One week later**

Finals had some about as soon as most everyone anticipated. Nerves were naturally high: UA wasn't known for being easy in the slightest, and the same standard was held for their exams.

So the legends told, anyways.

Faces had certainly been grim from the entire class the starting morning. The proceedings had went about as expected, with their seat being taken, roll call being called out by class representative Iida, and their home teacher Aizawa giving out their tests and threatening them not to cheat or else.

It'd been silent as a grave since then, with everybody in the class wholly focused on their tests. The only thing to break said silence was the scratching of pencils on paper and the occasional nervous cough from somebody as they filled out a question. Not exactly a grim setting, but one that was tense enough that the anxiety being generated by the whole class was palpable.

Of course, Kyomu was an exception to this. His expression had been about as neutral as possible, like most days, and when he'd received his test he'd merely looked at it with a bored expression while everyone else had formed nervous lumps in their throat and set out to work. Afterwards, he'd began to work on his test as a speed at which his pencil was a blur. And then, in twenty minutes, he'd finished his test that otherwise should have taken an hour, and, with the paper faced down on his desk, was reclining backwards and snoozing. He'd receive glances from other students from time to time, but they were so focused on their own exams that they didn't have the time to think on it.

Aizawa, however, did not have to take exams, and instead was charged with watching his students take multiple hour-long tests. By now he'd seen this behavior from Kyomu a total of three times, with him having repeated this on the previous two exams hours prior. He hadn't entertained the idea that Kyomu had bubbled in random answers in an effort to finish as quickly as possible; he was UA. Nobody got into his hero course with that attitude. Even so, he'd had students in previous classes with intelligence-enhancing Quirks that were slower than the rate he was going, so he'd grown a bit apprehensive when he saw Kyomu finishing so quickly.

 _"I didn't memorize the entire answer key when I got the exams from Nezu, but I did at least glance through it,"_ the teacher thought as he glanced at the pile of completed tests at his side. _"And, from what I saw... Shinka got a perfect score on those tests. At the very least got above a ninety on them all. Can't say I'm too surprised, since he's displayed an above-average intelligence, but I can't say it isn't at least a bit shocking. These exams are supposed to be_ _rigorous, and I've never seen anybody finish them this fast."_ His tired eyes glanced over at the sleeping Kyomu. _"And after the meeting we had to determine the teams for the practical exam and who they'd be fighting... agh, what a mess..."_

* * *

 **The previous day**

"And that's team J, Midoriya and Bakugo, settled." Aizawa turned away from the projector and to the UA staff seated all around the table in front of him. "All Might. You're sure that you're okay with fighting them?"

All Might, in his shrunken form, gaze Aizawa a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about it, Aizawa. I'll be sure to do my best against the both of them."

"See to it," he said. "Their relationship is among the worst in the whole class. Hopefully this'll do something to help fix that."

It wasn't exactly normal, planning to pin pairs of students against UA teachers in mock villain scenarios for a final, but that was the consequence of wanting to "mix things up" at UA to ensure every challenge and wall set before its students wasn't completely predictable and therefor give its students an advantage- there were only so many ways to mix tests up. They _had_ been planning on using robots once again with more stringent rules, but with all this recent villain activity, people were getting nervous. That included heroes, though they would never admit to such a thing.

So, they were ramping up the difficulty of the exams and having their students face off against their own teachers. A bit extreme, even by UA standards, but considering the students had already fought villains well before anybody in the room was comfortable admitting they were ready, it seemed an appropriate reaction.

"Alright. Last is team K." The teachers in front of him leaned forwards as the projector flicked to a picture of a bald teen. "Eikyo Sen. Grade-wise, he's about above-average. His relationship with his classmates is stable and healthy, though he has a particular friendship with Shinka Kyomu, who we'll be getting to in a bit." Some of the teacher nervously shifted in their seats. "Performance-wise, he has a solid grasp of his Quirk and its applications and has been doing well in his hero exercises. Frankly speaking, completely average compared to everyone else in Class 1-A, though he's more well-rounded compared to most other people. Relatively speaking, I'm not too worried about him.

"Shinka Kyomu, on the other hand..."

The projector flicked to a picture of the black-haired teen. Aizawa had to hold back a sigh before he went on with the presentation for his last student.

"His grades are about what you would all expect. Stellar," he began. "He maintains a friendly repertoire with his classmates, and he even excels in his hero studies and practice scenarios. About as model a student as anybody attending UA could possibly ever get if I'm being honest.

"That's... a bit of the issue," Aizawa continued. "His natural abilities, intellectual or otherwise, are leagues higher than the students we're normally accustomed to teaching here at UA. Our curriculum involves challenging the students every single day and forcing them to innovate and improve upon themselves so they can climb higher and higher to their true potential. We do this so that when they become heroes they can actually save lives and not get killed in the line of duty." He sighed, and then rose a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I'm not saying he's doing anything wrong. Fact is he's good. A... little too good. The problem is that he's been blowing through every single wall we've been putting in his way like it's nothing without actually growing because of it, unlike the rest of his class."

Some of the teachers around the table shot each other nervous and unsure glances, while others looked down with contemplative looks on their faces. One teacher, the hero Snipe whose features were concealed behind a gas mask, tapped the side of his head in thought while tapping the table with the other.

There were some murmurings among them, and a hero with a full head of long, stylized hair rose a hand. "Uh, IIII don't know about this one, Aizawa," Present Mic said as he glanced at the heroes and teachers to his side. "I mean, yeah, the kid's... he's a bit creepy sometimes, I ain't gonna lie, but he's a solid student through and through. Even if he does always outperform everyone without even tryin'."

"I don't know. He may have a point." All eyes turned towards Midnight, who was looking down at the table. "I mean, he's a nice boy, don't get me wrong. But his attitude from the start of the year compared to him now..." She trailed off, looking up and letting out a soft breath. "I can see where you're going with this, Aizawa. That he hasn't really changed that much. I just don't know if it's that big of an issue."

"It's true that he's made some leaps with the amount of control he can exert over his Quirk," Aizawa admitted, "though these are less strengths he learned in a classroom setting and more skills he's more or less making up on the fly whenever the motivation to do so hits him. It's a risky and dangerous habit to form, using untested techniques he comes up with on whims, especially in the field. Otherwise, he hasn't grown at all. I'm worried that he'll begin to stagnate and fall behind the other students, and when graduation time comes he won't be ready."

A sound of rumbling concrete filled the room as one of the teachers, a man made of cement, raised his rectangular arm. "I think you're blowing this a little out of proportion, Eraser," he said. "Shinka may be a bit more talented than usual, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. He's just a bit ahead of the curve compared to everyone else. Worse comes to worse he'll see that he's beginning to fall behind and then start to speed up." He lowered his hand an tilted his square head to the side. "Besides. We're all aware of Shinka's condition."

"'Condition'. Yeah, right," the gas mask-wearing hero, Snipe, scoffed. "You guys forgetting that genetic 'condition' he and his brother have let that villain of a kid block a bullet I shot at him back at USJ? From behind?" Sighing, he shook his covered head. "Shouldn't have been humanly possible. They both have Emitter Quirks, not some kind of Mutation Quirk that increases their physical abilities. That wasn't a Quirk he used to block a bullet, weird light sword notwithstanding. That was just him moving normally. That just isn't humanly possible, especially from a fifteen-year-old."

It was an issue most of the staff at UA wanted to dance around, if not just ignore altogether. Kyomu confiding to All Might his genetic condition followed by an investigation from the school into his medical records had confirmed this as much. It hadn't really changed all that much in the grand scheme of things; the varying Quirks their students had made it so that abilities would never be equal in strength with one another. That was just how the world operated now. Regardless of how much stronger or smarter a student was compared to others, Quirk or otherwise, they were all equals in UA.

Except that Kyomu was just a bit too far ahead of par, even by normal and expected standards. Hence Aizawa's concern.

All Might, who had been silent for the most part, merely looked on at Aizawa as he expressed his feelings towards their student. A low hum came out of his throat before he fully turned to address the teacher. "What do you suppose we do?" he asked.

"I want to push him a bit harder than we ought to during his final exam for this semester," Aizawa explained. "I talked it over with Vlad, and he's helping us out by battling team K since we're understaffed with us fighting everybody else." He paused, and sighed out loud before continuing. "You're all aware that us teachers will be wearing weights developed by the support class in order to inhibit our physical abilities and give our students a chance at passing. I've made it so that Vlad's weights aren't nearly as debilitating as ours will be."

"You're not... suggesting we intentionally throw his final exam?" All Might explained with widened eyes.

Aizawa shook his head. "No, of course not. That wouldn't be fair to him and especially the partner he'll be bringing along with him. But as it stands, most of our curriculum is designed with the whole class in mind, and pushing harder at the expense of one student wouldn't be conducive to the whole class's growth in the long run. That said, this is one of the situations where we're able to tailor our challenges for individual students and groups. I just want to push him harder than everybody else in this instance since he's been taking it so easy so far. That's it." He shrugged his shoulders. "Vlad went along with it. He's more than happy to help. Worst case is that Shinka and his partner will fail and have to do some extra lessons at the training camp; maybe it could even serve as a wake-up call to Shinka and force him to stop taking the courses here so lackadaisically. If he passes, that'll be proof enough for me that I'm overreacting and that he is learning, and I'll drop the matter. Sound fair?"

The slow nods he received around the room was the only relief he felt over the issue, but it was enough for him to tell himself he was doing the correct thing as both a hero and teacher.

* * *

 _"Ugh. Midday."_ Kyomu squinted his eyes while simultaneously shielding them with his flattened hand as he looked up at the sky. _"I'm more of a night person. Maybe it's 'cause I turned into a prowler at some point in my mess of a life. Agh, anyways..."_

He could understand the rapid-fire nature of final exams and all the seriousness surrounding it, but having their practical right out of their written tests, while understandable by UA standards, still seemed exhausting. Mentally, at least. Physically he was feeling about as fine as could be.

The fact that they were fighting their teachers in pairs certainly didn't help with the anxiety. About half of the class had almost died of a heart attack when they learned that.

It was simple enough as far as things went. One at a time, each pair would fight against a teacher that the instructors had figured in the various training areas around UA, one at a time. As far as their instruction at UA over all this time went, it was a pretty standard training exercise: either capture the villain, i.e. the teacher, with the capture tape or make it through an escape gate at the other end of the training area. Only difference was that they were fighting teachers who were taking this semi-seriously with training weights.

Sen and Kyomu were the last team, and therefor had to wait the longest before their fight could begin. The success or failure of all the other teams was announced overhead by the loudspeakers spread all throughout the UA property, letting them know how closer they were to getting to their turn. As they were now, the two were standing at the gated edge of one of the fake training cities, though were they currently stood was a forested area. Sen was sitting on a fallen stump with a bored expression on his face while Kyomu was rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Sucks to hear that Kirishima and Sato bit it," Sen lamented from his stump as he stifled a yawn. "Thought if anybody was gonna pass, it'd be those two. Kaminari and Ashido I sorta understand, but those two?"

"Yeah, especially considering the amazing, spectacular, stupendous, and all around swell Mr. Grape passed." Kyomu couldn't fight rolling his eyes. "Geez, how the hell'd Mineta pass when they failed? He was fighting Midnight. Surprised he didn't just pass out on the spot right there."

Sen shrugged. "I mean, he was with Sero. Maybe he carried him through it?"

"I don't know why, but something's tellin' me you got that backwards."

The other teen opened his mouth to respond, but a loud, electrical whining cut through the air, interrupting them. They both craned their necks upwards in preparation for the tenth message to be relayed through the speakers, which would be signaling their own start.

 **"Team J, Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki, have passed!"** the loudspeakers cried out. **"Last up is Team K, Shinka Kyomu and Eikyo Sen!"**

The speakers cut out and, as if on cue, the gates leading into the practice city slowly opened up.

"Welp, game time." The bald teen hopped off his stump and dusted his hands off as he stepped to Kyomu's side. "Can't believe they won. Against All Might."

"Yeah, they're about as cohesive a team as... something... whatever, you know what I mean." The two walked side by side through the gate, with their scenery immediately changing to the outskirts of a small city. The gates quickly closed behind them. This had mainly gone ignored by the two, with Sen shooting Kyomu a teasing smirk who turned away. "So, this... Vlad King guy," Kyomu began in an effort to reflect his blunder. "I've seen him around the school in the halls, but he's never actually taught us."

"He's Class 1-B's homeroom teacher," Sen explained, "so he's mostly just with those guys. They only brought him over 'cause they were short on teachers, since we're an extra pair compared to the norm."

Kyomu nodded. "Ah, I see." Humming, he craned his neck to the side as he rubbed at it. "I mean, they weren't _completely_ understaffed. They coulda thrown the granny at us."

A short bark of a laugh escaped the bald teen. "What, Recovery Girl? What were they supposed to do? Throw her in a giant mech suit or something?"

"I wouldn't put it past them," Kyomu said, "but I guess she'd be busy healing anybody that got hurt, so it's understandable." He stopped rubbing his neck and looked at Sen. "Anyway. Vlad. He wouldn't happened to be called that because he controls bats or something, right?"

Sen shook his head. "Nah. Blood control. Someone from Class B told me once," he said. "He's able to control and shape his own blood. Can harden it into shapes and everything."

"Ugh, course." The two students walked past a street corner and turned towards and empty street, which they proceeded to walk down. "I swear, they leave nothing to the imagination. And blood. Geez, I already messed around with a blood guy. Why do I gotta deal with this again?"

"Heh. That's hero life, man. Saving lives, fighting villains, and maintaining good PR so people actually know who you are. That means flashy names and costumes." His orange eyes gazed down at Kyomu's hero outfit. "Which is why I really think you oughta ditch the black trench coat and go for something more... hero-y. Or at least get it fixed."

Kyomu shook his head. "Not happenin'. I'm not some shill that's gonna dance around in flashy colors acting happy in front of everybody just to keep up appearances, even if it means more popularity and better pay. I just wanna get the job done." He shoved his hands inside his pockets with a huff. "Besides. Mr. Aizawa gets away with it as Eraser Head, so I should, too."

"Guess you got a point," Sen conceded. The two continued walking for some time before he spoke up again. "So, exam's started, right?"

"Yeah."

"So... what's the plan?" he asked. "For taking on Vlad King. Because everybody's watching us right now, and we're in the middle of an exam. And so far all we've been doing is walking around and talking."

"Shoot, you're right." Kyomu had almost completely forgotten that there was a monitoring room that their classmates were able to go to in order to observe. To make matters worse, they were the last team competing, which meant that everybody that hadn't been sent to the infirmary after their exam was watching. Which meant a good eighty-to-ninety percent of the class, if not the whole hundred.

As if there wasn't enough pressure already. And he refused to lose this exam, if not for the fact everybody was watching, than for the fact that Mineta passed. He wouldn't allow it.

"We better step our game up here, man," Sen said with a smirk. "Girls are watching."

"Ante's mounting," Kyomu replied in a sarcastic tone. "Alright, what if you charge up your hand a whole lot and, while I'm fighting and distracting him, you punch out a building's support structure and just drop it on him?" He turned his head towards Sen and raised his eyebrows up and down. "Eh? Eh? Whaddya think?"

Chuckling nervously, Sen shook his head. "We're heroes, Kyomu. We can't drop buildings on villains. That's some serious collateral damage." He turned away. "Also I think that'll kill that guy. Which would be bad for a villain, but this is a teacher pretending to be a villain. So doubly bad."

"Oh. Yeah. Right." Struggles of maintaining a cover as a real hero. He actually had to act like one in front of other people. "Okay, we'll... ah, too late."

Once again, the two teenagers had rounded another corner, only to immediately stop when they saw what was waiting for them in the middle of the intersection square. A large, muscled man stood in wait for them in the middle of the intersection, arms crossed and his crimson eyes trained on the both of them.

 _"Pasty over there must be Vlad King,"_ Kyomu thought as his eyes trained over the man's form. _"White hair and red eyes. If it weren't for his insanely square jaw and fangs, I'd say it's some weird, muscled future-Hikari."_ His eyes trailed to his red costume. _"He's got vents and tubes all over his costume. Is it because of his blood power?"_

"Okay, Sen, I got no plan here so just... do something spontaneous," Kyomu said. "I dunno, go and- oh."

When Kyomu turned his head to the side, his partner had already disappeared beyond the corner of a nearby building. Which, of course, left Kyomu completely alone with the pretend villain that was a stone's throw away from him. Without even a single word.

"Geez, didn't think he'd take me that litera- whoa there." Hands still in his pockets, Kyomu jumped back when a hand-sized red, crystalline spike flew at his feet and embedded itself in the spot he had been standing prior. Scrunching his face up, he looked back and forth from the spike and Vlad King before shaking his head. "Dude, did that really come from inside you? Gross."

A disappointed frown set itself across Vlad Kings face. At the same time, red fluid began flowing through the tubes throughout his body. "That flippant attitude of yours isn't becoming of a future hero," he stated in a rough voice. "You should be taking this seriously."

"And you should be putting in enough effort to make me take this seriously, but I ain't seein' it."

There wasn't any betraying emotion that made itself evident on Vlad King's face, though his eyes did harden a slight amount as he charged forwards. Red fluid poured out from tubes on his wrist before they hardened into two red crystal spears he held in each hand. Said spears were repeatedly thrust and slashed at Kyomu, who lazily dodged each strike as he rapidly backpedaled away from the hero.

 _"Nah, antagonizing him isn't gonna work. He's a hero; a real pro. He's used to that kinda thing."_ Kyomu moved his head to the side, and the spear aimed at him narrowly avoided grazing him. _"Words won't get me anywhere. Actions are all that matter now. Those spears... they're made of his blood? Wicked."_

Skidding backwards, Kyomu removed his right hand from his pocket and snapped his fingers. A black streak immediately went across the middle of the spears, cutting them in half and causing the top halves to fall down. Black holes opened right below them, and the broken blood spears fell right through before the portals closed. Vlad King hummed and stepped back, the remainder of the spears liquefying and flowing back into him, while Kyomu re-pocketed his hand.

 _"Those blood weapons look real cool and flashy, Vlad, but that's your life juice you're chuckin' at me here,"_ Kyomu thought as the two began to slowly circle one another. _"How much blood can you lose before you start blacking out? I'll just keep cutting your weapons and send the pieces to Void. You gotta run outta blood eventually."_

The ground underneath him began to rumble. When the teen looked down, he saw that the street he was standing on began to crack. Between those cracks, he saw hints of crimson. And upon seeing the red in the cracks, he jumped up in panic.

It was a good thing he did, as dozens of flat blades made of blood exploded out of the ground underneath him. Kyomu himself had avoided injury, though some of the blood blades had cut at his costume. He landed a few meters away as the blade quickly retracted into the ground. Not even a second had passed from the blades disappearing beneath the street before Vlad began charging forwards once more.

Narrowing his eyes, Kyomu continued to backpedal as he looked left and right. Upon crossing a intersection, he looked to the left and widened his eyes, and then faced back forwards at an approaching Vlad. He swiped his hand forwards, with a trail of black following him. At the same time, a pained grunt escaped from Vlad as he stumbled forwards and fell to his right knee right in the middle of the intersection, with blood spurting out of the back of his left ankle as wisps of black faded.

"I used Void to cut the tendons in your ankle," Kyomu announced. Pieces of frozen blood fell from his fingers as he shook them off and placed the hand back in his pocket. "You give up yet?"

"Agh...!" Suppressing a quiet hiss, Vlad King fixed his eyes up at Kyomu. "Didn't realize you could do something like that."

"I mean, it's not that hard. You just make one portal here, make another to reach through, wrap Void over your fingers to cut through..." Kyomu shrugged at the steely gaze. "C'mon, don't give me that look. I coulda just torn the tendons out entirely, you know, but I didn't really feel like crippling you for life since this a kinda mock-slash-semi-serious kinda fight. Also, pretty sure heroes aren't allowed to mutilate villains."

"True..." Vlad King looked back at his angle. "But a wound like this alone could be enough to-"

"Don't give me that," Kyomu interrupted. "I can see you using your blood power to heal all the way from over here. What, do you just fill the gaps I made with blood and force it to coagulate? Some sort of pseudo-regeneration?"

Red eyes widened and briefly flashed towards the wounded ankle, which had stopped bleeding seconds ago. The deep gashes made from the brief contact with Kyomu's fingers were filled in with crystallized blood, and from the way he was kneeling suggested that the ankle could function normally as it wasn't awkward. And, once it was made obvious that Kyomu had noticed these signs, blood began flowing over Vlad's body as he stood up and prepared to attack once more.

And then, from Vlad King's right, a truck came flying at him, impacted his body, and carried it all the way across the intersection until it slammed into the wall of a nearby building. The front half of the truck was completely embedded while Vlad's body was nowhere to be seen.

"'Course the incoming truck might make it hard for you to do anything," Kyomu mumbled under his breath as he looked to where the truck had flown in from. He saw Sen, his arm crackling with orange power, walking down that street with his eyes trained on the truck smashed into the wall.

"I get him?" he called, stopping besides Kyomu. The two briefly fist-bumped before continuing. "I was waiting for you to line me up a shot, and I saw you saw me, so I was just kinda waiting for a sign or something from you but then he moved and-"

"Yeah, Sen, you got him," the other teen said. "How'd you even know we'd wind up at this intersection? And where'd you even get the truck?"

Sen nodded his head down the street he'd just walked from. "Oh, I just... kinda followed you two until you stopped there. Truck was already right in front of me, so... yeah." His eyes wandered to the ground, and then pointed at something he saw. "Hey, what's that?"

"Mm?" Kyomu followed his eyes to the object in question. A small, metal ring that was slightly cracked and laying on the ground. "Oh, that must be one of those limiter weights the teachers were wearing," he said as he crouched down to pick it up. "Must've fallen off him when you chucked a whole truck at him. Not that surprising. How hard did you hit that thing, any- eh?"

When the teen picked the weight up, he noticed a very distinct lack of weight. There was heft to it, to be sure- just not as much as he would expect from a weight meant to limit a hero's mobility. "This thing feels kinda light," he said, lifting the weight up and down while humming. "Or is that just me? Could just be me."

"I mean, I imagine they customized the weights for every individual hero," Sen suggested from behind. "I mean, All Might's weights would be a billion time heavier than Midnight's or Aizawa's, right? Vlad's are probably light in comparison, too."

"I guess..." Shrugging, Kyomu tossed the weight to the side. "Vlad's a beefy dude, but whatever. Speaking of which."

He rose up, and the two teens turned towards the truck inside the building's wall. They then walked over to the truck and grasped it with both pairs of hands and pulled. Slow, the truck slowly slid out of the wall until all four wheels touched down on the ground and rolled backwards.

A large, unconscious body fell out right behind it.

"Good thing that parking break was off, huh?" Kyomu noted as he watched the truck roll away.

"Yeah, I took it off, now please get the damn tape on him before he wakes us up and pulls his freaky blood powers out," Sen urged as he nudged the sleeping figure with his foot.

Kyomu sent his friend a cheeky grin, but still pulled the capture tape our from his pocket and knelt down towards the body. After tapping the side of his head to confirm that he was just sleeping, he quickly brought his hands together and began binding them with the capture tape.

"You know, I could have just made a break for the gate while you kept him busy," Sen commented as Kyomu worked on the tape. "You couldn't have just... I dunno, surrounded him with Void portals and trapped him? Covered the whole ground in a giant sheet of Void and let him stand in a small, empty spot with nowhere to go? Something like that?"

The black-haired teen paused in his binding, though for a second, and then continued. "I guess I could have," he admitted. "But we're already here, so... yeah. Heat of the moment and all that; I told you I didn't have a plan. Good idea, though. I'll definitely use it sometime in the future."

"Really?"

"Eh, probably not." Finishing his binding, Kyomu zipped the tape tight. He would have taken his hand off the body, but he felt some of the flesh underneath his fingers shift, and the tubes over his body began to darken with blood. Whether it was a sign Vlad King was waking up or a simple reflex, Kyomu did not know, as he immediately took the back f Vlad's head and slammed it into the sidewalk. The concrete cracked when the hero's face was embedded in it, and the blood flow ceased as a result. Work done, he stood up and backed away from the body. "Aaaand... done. Villain captured, day saved, now where's our gratuitous victory announcement?"

 **"Team K, Shinka Kyomu and Eikyo Sen, have passed!"** Their own passing announcement was aired right over them. Kyomu nodded in satisfaction while Sen rolled his eyes. **"This concludes Class 1-A's practical final assessment!"**

* * *

 **A/N- I actually did wanna put Recovery Girl in a mech suit, but like many ideas I've scrapped for this story, it didn't make the final cut.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 24- Brothers' lament**

* * *

UA had a swimming pool.

On its own, not so unique. Most high schools had swimming pools, usually for swimming classes, physical training , water sports, ect. This open air swimming pool wasn't anything out of the ordinary, either. Just standard bricks and water and no crazy training traps or devices (as far as Kyomu was aware, at least). It was actually fairly luxurious if one were to look at it. Of course, the only reason UA even had this expensive pool was for people to train any water Quirks they had, which usually meant that it wasn't for recreational use by the students.

Today was an exception, as Class 1-A was enjoying the pool for exclusive recreational use under the guise of "endurance training" to celebrate the finishing of their finals and the trip to the training camp at the beginning of summer. A training retreat that was _supposed_ to only be for those that passed. But, of course...

"This whole 'ruse' thing our teacher keeps doing kinda makes me not trust a word he says. Or at least, it should." A contemplative look came over Kyomu's as he licked a popsicle and leaned back against a brick pillar. Half of the class was sitting or standing around and chatting while the other half was off in the pool. "But the guy is always so straight and narrow that you can't help but believe every word he says. It's strange."

He heard a cough to his side and turned his head. A shock of blonde hair greeted his vision when he saw Kaminari standing next to him and giving him a questioning look.

"Dude, are you... are you telling that to me, or are you just talking to yourself?" he asked.

"No clue," Kyomu said with a shrug as he continued to lick his popsicle. "Speaking of Aizawa," he continued, "I'm surprised you and Mineta were able to convince the guy to rent the pool out to us for a bit. Even more surprised you two came up with this whole 'we're gonna call it training but really we're just using the pool to goof off' trick. At least I'm pretty sure that's what's happening. I can't really tell." He pointed the popsicle at him. "Downright devious."

"Heh heh, yeah..." The other male chuckled nervously and looked to the side. "I ain't gonna lie, we just wanted to use this as an excuse to look at all the girls in swimsuits."

Kyomu nodded. "Mm, sounds like something Mineta would do. Surprised you went along with it, though." He looked off towards the pool. "And all the girls are wearing the most conservative swimsuits imaginable, so your plan kinda backfired there."

It was more suit than skin, now that he really looked at them. If anything the boys were showing more skin since they were only wearing swimming trunks. And everybody was actually taking this swimming venture semi-seriously. If he was being honest with himself, it was the most laid-back act of training he'd ever seen. And he didn't even know if it was that or everyone just having fun. Maybe both? Probably both.

"Oi, Void!" Kyomu's head snapped to the side. Another students with lighter blonde hair was standing near him with his arms crossed, with a heterochromatic student standing right behind him. "We're gonna be racing from one end of the pool to the other in groups," Bakugo explained. "You want in or out?"

"We want to find out how many people are willing to participate before starting," Todoroki added.

The black-haired teen hummed in thought. "With or without Quirks?" he asked.

"With," both replied instantly.

"Then I'm out," he said, much to their surprise. "What? You know I'm just gonna use Void to teleport from one end to the other. Won't be fair. Y'know, as fair as using natural-born powers is. You get the idea."

Which was usually the very reason he _would_ participate in such a challenge, if only to one-up everybody around him knowing they wouldn't resent him afterwards. Except maybe for Bakugo, who would likely grumble and scream at him for doing so good before spending half his time on thinking on how to be better and beat him the next time. But after they'd gotten their exams back and Kyomu got the top marks of the class, he wasn't willing to risk another outburst from him. His only saving grace that day had been that Todoroki and Yaoyorozu had pulled out ahead of him too in terms of grades.

Besides. He wasn't done with the popsicle yet. And he just wasn't feeling all that competitive at the moment.

"Pfft. If you say so, chicken." The two teens waved him off and turned away, and Kyomu leaned back once more to enjoy his snack.

 _"Ah. This is nice. These moments of calm."_ Already people were lining up in groups and racing towards the other end of the pool. He couldn't suppress his grin when he saw Bakugo just use his Explosion power to fly over the water. _"We're gonna be going to that training camp pretty soon, too, now that the semester's over. That'll be nice. Big retreat out in the woods, some class bonding, it'll be great."_

There were panicked screams, and Kyomu briefly saw Kaminari and Mineta being dragged towards the pool by Iida. He had no clue why, but Iida seemed fairly excited, and was talking a lot about training and sweating from what words the teen managed to pick out from the panic of the other two.

Thus, he decided to ignore it and go back to his popsicle, all the while looking down at his swimming shorts. His black, faded, hole-riddled shorts. "Man, these are kinda old," he noted. "Should I get new ones?"

* * *

 **That** **night**

Breaking into warehouses at night. Could he call this the lowest his life had ever been? Or would that have been the eleven years in prison? Surely one of them, but he just couldn't parse together which one.

"Wait-wait-wait-plea-!"

 _Thwack!_

The poor security guard fell unconscious when Hikari slammed his fist into the side of his head, and he didn't even know his name. Fortunately, it was only the one- which in itself was extremely underwhelming considering _everyone_ in the League was with him and rooting around somewhere or else in this warehouse.

And not just Shigaraki and the other two new people, either. There were seven other new people in addition to those two that were accompanying him on this night, all to break into the middle of a warehouse. Their "initiation", he supposed, for whatever worth it was breaking into a warehouse that only had one single guard that fell to his knees the moment he saw Hikari.

As things stood, they were all villains. And apparently that meant that they needed support costumes just like heroes, so the good man Middles (whose real name Hikari still refused to learn) had gone out of his way to not only procure new members for the League, but had managed to get illegal costumes made for them. Which was why they were all here: this warehouse was a dead drop for them to pick the costumes up. What kind of connections that man had to allow him to tap into whatever it was to make what was practically illegal weapons, Hikari didn't know. He didn't think even Shigaraki knew, either. All For One? Strong possibility, but Hikari hadn't even talked to that man since the Stain incident. Not only that, but his TV-talks with Shigaraki were growing less and less frequent.

Maybe it was less an initiation for the new members and more for Shigaraki. This was all thanks to him, after all, not All For One. There was talks of getting another Nomu that he'd overheard, but otherwise, this was all thanks to their handsy leader. Not like the first time where it had been All For One that had hired all those two-bit villains and provided their one ace in the hole that'd failed them in the end.

"Hey, Shinka." The teen turned his head around when he heard his name called. He saw Dabi walked up right behind him, hands pocketed and eyes trained down on the guard. "You gonna finish him off or what?"

"Neh?" Hikari looked back down at the guard. "Why? It's only one guy. Probably doesn't even work here full time- was making rounds, likely."

Dabi shrugged. "Yeah, but he saw your face."

 _"'So what? I'm a runaway villain. Worse case is he blabs to the police and they think I was squatting here in hiding or something."'_ That's what he wanted to say, at any rate. But that was a useless excuse seeing as he was already a known affiliate of the League of Villains. Shigaraki had been clear when he said that he wanted the retrieval of the costumes to be as quiet as possible, and that he didn't want this to be traced back to the League. He wanted this to be as quiet as possible.

Suddenly Dabi was making a very good point.

Hikari felt his stomach turn. Of course they would expect him to kill the guard off. Everybody already thought he was a killer who offed his own parents. What was some random security guard to that of all things? It should have been easy in their eyes.

Except it _wasn't_ easy. Because he wasn't his brother. He'd never killed anybody in his entire life. There was only one person he was willing to cross that line for, and the person he'd just knocked out wasn't any All Might. He didn't want to kill some random person who was just doing their job. He didn't want to kill somebody who didn't deserve it.

But he was a villain now. And that's exactly what villains did. What would they think if he started to draw the line here? They'd start questioning. Kyomu's life would be at stake if they looked for the truth. He'd be denounced as a liar, and who knew what would happen then?

And yet, despite all that, he could raise his arm up to finish the guard up. In fact, he had to focus on both his arms so they wouldn't shake.

"Hey, what's the holdup here?" Another villain dropped from the ceiling right next to them. Spinner, if Hikari recalled correctly. Somebody with a Mutation-type Quirk that made them look like a human lizard. He'd always heard about humans whose Quirks made them look like animals even as a kid, but now that he was out of prison and managed to get a taste of the real world he'd found that there were more of those than he'd initially believed. Spinner was just another example. "You guys gonna ice this guard or what?"

"Shinka over here's dragging his feet." They both looked at the reluctant teen. "What's the problem?"

"Get off my back. I used up all my stored light practicing earlier. Didn't even know we were all coming out here before Shigaraki springed this on us at the last second." He raised hand and flexed it for emphasis. "Doesn't help were in some dark warehouse in the middle of the night. Can't even see the moon because of the clouds, and there's so much grime on the windows that it doesn't make a difference. What do you want me to do? Stand here for five minutes until I get enough light to blast a hole in his head?"

It wasn't totally beyond the realm of belief. He always practiced with his Light ability by making shapes with gathered light and manipulating them. Dabi and Toga could attest to this at the very least since they'd been around slightly longer than the rest. There wouldn't be any reason for them to doubt his words, and it's not like they could prove it if they called him out.

Good thing, too, since he actually had enough light stored up to level the warehouse.

"Geez. This is the Villain of Light everybody got so worked up for?" a third voice chimed in. A shadow fell over the other three as a man easily twice Hikari's own size, maybe even taller, and much, _much_ more muscular bent down and picked the guard up by his head with a single, meaty hand. "Can't even prepare for a simple fetch job and won't kill a single guard. What a pansy."

And then he'd squeezed down on the guard's head and crushed it like a grape. Brain and viscera scattered everywhere, and some of it unfortunately landed on Hikari's sleeve.

 _"This psychopath- agh! Gross, gross! This is sick!"_ He felt his skin crawling from the sight he just saw, on the gore that just landed on him made him want to vomit, but he held it all in and maintained a cool expression as he wiped the flesh off him. It left a large, red stain in the wipe's wake. "Come on, man, seriously?" he asked in a bored tone. "You know how hard it is to get red out of white?"

"Then stop wearing white. This kind of thing is commonplace for villains." With that said, he dropped the body and turned around to stomp further into the warehouse.

"He's got a point," Dabi said from the side. "If getting your clothes stained is really bugging you, wear darker colors. I know you're trying to go with the whole light theme thing, but I'm just saying."

Rolling his red eyes, Hikari trudged further into the warehouse with the other two trailing behind him. "I don't think I have to worry about blood when the heat from my ability immediately cauterizes wounds," he airily replied. "I mean, you have a fire Quirk, right? You know what I mean."

Dabi shrugged. "I guess." He then looked up and past Hikari's shoulder. "Hey, is that the cache up there?"

The three looked up ahead. Near the center of the warehouse were large stacks of crates, where the other League members that had been gathered were huddling around and talking excitedly about. Hikari did see some articles of clothing and bits of equipment being passed around, so he assumed that it was the dead drop they were sent to pick up.

"Yeah, that must be it," Hikari confirmed. "Alright, let's get it and get out. And Dabi, torch the crates once we get everything out. The body back there, too. Don't wanna leave much evidence."

The villain nodded as they approached their plunder. Most everybody had mixed feelings as they were tearing into the crates to pull out their new gear. Some were excited. Others, like the large, muscled man, were less than impressed.

"This a joke?" He gruffly complained as he held up a smooth, featureless white mask with holes drilled into it. "You all get useful gear and I just get a shitty mask to work with? C'mon. I don't mind smashing some heads together, but this is just insulting."

"Ah, relax big guy," said a teen with a gas mask he twirled around his finger, "we'll all get our chance with or without snazzy gear. We're gonna teach all those heroes and heroes-in-training the what-for. If we're gonna kill a bunch along the way? All the better?"

One villain wasn't saying anything, and instead was just silently mumbling to himself as he stared at the crates and drooled.

Near the back of the warehouse, Hikari stared on wordlessly at the villains in front of him. And on the inside, he couldn't help but wonder what it was he had gotten himself into.

* * *

 **The next day**

 _"Starting to regret a lot of my life choices here."_

Hikari would have thought that he would start having regrets over a decade ago when he'd first landed in prison. Or maybe in the years after when the solitude really began bugging him. Back then when the only thing keeping him going was that one day he'd get out- whether it be the system letting him go or his patience running out while at the same time his power growing high enough that he could let himself out.

But no. Outside of a few quick moments of weakness throughout those years, he didn't have any regrets whatsoever. As long as Kyomu was free, he was... mildly content. Not completely satisfied by any extension of the word: full satisfaction would have been that villain being blamed for the whole incident and the both of them having walked free. Joining the League was supposed to be his way of making as much compromise with the current situation as possible in order to create as ideal an outcome for both the twins as he could make.

And he still firmly believed that this option, his only conceivable option, was the right one. It didn't change the fact that every single person in the League was making him second-guess himself.

 _"Kurogiri and Shigaraki, I got used to. I warmed up to Dabi pretty quick. Everybody else though... ugh. They're nuts. Completely insane."_

There was something wrong with all those new League members, and Hikari didn't know what it was. Genuine insanity? Very possibly genuine insanity. One of them was an escaped death row inmate they had to keep in a straight-jacket that couldn't even speak coherent sentences in edge-wise. Toga and another member, Twice, a man with a cloning Quirk, were legitimately crazy in Hikari's eyes. The former just kept alternating between normal teenage girl things like clothes and boys and blood and murdering. The latter was more tolerable, but still crazy in his literal backwards way of talking.

Nobody else was any better. Not that muscled villain that killed that guard, or the guy near Hikari's age, or the person with the magnet Quirk. Around the bar they just kept talking about completely horrible things like it was the weather they were talking about. Mainly hurting people, killing them, or some combination of the two.

Even that lizard person, Spinner, he was no better. He was a Stain fanatic, or maybe some twisted zealot would be a better word. All he cared about was carrying on Stain's legacy, since he'd up and disappeared and wasn't doing his "true hero" work anymore. And to Spinner that just meant killing as many "fake heroes" as possible. Was a no-brainer why he joined the League considering the context of their work. He was just joining up because they had a common enemy.

It didn't make any sense to him. He just couldn't understand why these people wanted to hurt other people so much. Hearing about villains on TV as a kid had been one thing. Hanging around with them, interacting with them, that was another thing entirely. His initial hope had been that he would be able to understand why they were doing what they did, that he could find some _reason_ for it all, but he saw nothing. Maybe there was, but he just didn't see it because they'd all just met.

That or they really all were mad and belonged in an insane asylum. But then where did that leave him?

"You got that heavy-thinking look on your face, Shinka." The teen looked up from his musings as the person in front of him. He was almost unrecognizable in the black hoodie with the hood up and concealing his face, but he'd seen enough of Shigaraki's face to recognize him when he'd turned around to glance at him from the side. "Something on your mind?"

Where the two currently were was on a sidewalk. Specifically, a sidewalk right across from the parking lot that was right in front of one of the bigger malls in the city, with Shigaraki concealing himself with a black hoodie while Hikari wore a white one, as always, though with the hood covering his face.

He honestly had no idea why it was they were out here. It was more for Shigaraki's sake than the League's sake. He'd just said he needed "somewhere to think" and had stormed out. So Hikari had followed- mostly at the behest of Kurogiri due to the fact he was one of the only people Shigaraki wouldn't snap at for following him.

To be fair, he hadn't flipped out when Hikari began closely following behind. In fact, he hadn't said anything. It had actually looked like that he was in deep thought like the teen was, who was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to question the older male.

"I've just been thinking about our new League members," Hikari answered. "Do they seem... off to you? By any stretch?"

"What do you mean by off?" Shigaraki asked.

"How do I put it concisely..." The white-haired teen leaned his head back and scratched the back of his neck, but then shook his head and lowered the hand. "I can't. Shigaraki, most of those guys are psychos."

"Toga's annoying, but she isn't that bad."

"I'm not just talking about Toga!" It was a good thing that the sidewalk they were on and aforementioned parking lot was mostly abandoned despite it being noon. Most people were in the mall at this time, so Hikari didn't feel the need to lower his voice. "I just... have you heard most of them, Shigaraki? They're off their rockers. Talking about killing this, murder that, and all sorts of... awful stuff."

By now, Shigaraki had turned around to fully face the Hikari. He blinked owlishly at him, with his cracked lips pressed into a thin line as he stared. "They're villains," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "The hell do you think they were all gonna talk about in their down time? Shinka, _we're_ villains. You stabbed your brother through the chest and almost killed All Might."

"That's different. He's my brother and could have totally handled it. Did handle it." Hikari waved a defensive hand to the side. "And plus you know my feelings towards All Might."

"And that kid whose hand you cut off?"

"Hey, he got in the way. Plus he got in back on." The teen paused and looked down. "I just don't get those guys. Maybe it's because I just met them and everything, but they just feel like... I dunno, walking stereotypes. And they talk about hurting people so casually."

"Ah-huh." Carefully, Shigaraki placed his hands inside of the pockets on his hoodie, though he left his index fingers outside of them as to not accidentally destroy it. He then walked over to the nearest wall and leaned his back against it, propping his right foot on it while he turned his head to continue facing Hikari. "How much do you know about Twice?"

"The guy with the cloning Quirk?" Hikari questioned, to which Shigaraki nodded. "Not much. You're the one who talked with Middles about everyone during recruitment."

"Well-" Shigarki paused, and then snickered quietly. "You seriously call that guy Middles? That's sensational. I'm gonna start using that." He cleared his throat and started once more. "Anyways, Middles-" he giggled for a moment, "- told me a bit about everyone before they joined, though I got a lot more on Twice than most everyone else since his real identity has a lot of psych files on record. That cloning Quirk of his really messed his head up, you know?"

Hikari tilted his head. "Messed his head up?"

"Those clones he makes are perfect copies. They hold the memories of the original who they're based off of, their Quirks, everything. And apparently there was a time when he used it on himself. A lot." The League leader grimaced and looked to the side. "From what I was told, it caused a pretty big identity crisis for him. Poor guy was going mad because he couldn't tell which clone was the real Twice. That's how authentic those copies are. Did anybody help him, though?" He raised his arms in a shrug and shook his head. "Oh, sure, he got admitted to a lot of mental hospitals. Right after his Quirk drove him insane because he couldn't figure out which one was real. Nobody would take him seriously. How could a simple cloning Quirk drive somebody mad?" He scoffed. "Well... you've heard the guy. Maybe he'd be completely normal if he'd ever gotten some help. But he's with us now. A villain shaped by this society."

"This the part where you tell me every single person in that bar has some tragic backstory that lead them to this point?" The teen rolled his eyes. "Gimme a break."

"I can't really speak for everyone. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure people like Muscular are only with us because they like hurting people. Because that's just the kind of person people like him are. I don't really care as long as he's useful." He fully turned his head away and looked at the mall. "I mean, it's not like you have any place to talk. Having killed your parents and left your brother all alone and everything."

The other male hummed and crossed his arms. It was a fair enough point of view, even if it was completely wrong. How could he say other people were horrible when everybody thought he himself were just as bad? "So, what? Twice gets an excuse 'cause he's crazy?" he muttered. "What, you're gonna tell me that Toga had some horrible, unspeakable stuff happen to her as a child and because of that she's a... whatever she is now?"

"Then what's your excuse?" Shigaraki challenged.

Hikari shook his head. "I don't know, Shigaraki. What's your excuse? What makes you hate this society so much that you're sympathetic over all those psychos huddling up in the bar? You know why I'm in the League. What's your reason?"

The older male huffed, and maintained his position of looking at the mall and away from Hikari. This went on for a few moments, and the teen had figured that Shigaraki wouldn't say anything and prepared to move, but then froze when his leader opened his mouth and spoke.

"I'm like Twice. Nobody would help me when my Quirk started destroying everything around me because I didn't know what it did." The teen's eyes widened as Shigaraki spoke, as his usually cracked voice had taken on a somber tone. "Had parents. Grandparents. A sister. Even a dog. Life wasn't... exactly great, dad wasn't the best in the world, but overall I couldn't complain, either. Of course that all crumbled to dust one day. Literally. When my Quirk manifested and I disintegrated my whole family because I didn't have a clue on how my Quirk worked. How could I have? I was just a kid." He took his right hand out of his pocket and rose it to his face. "Nobody would help the kid sitting in the giant pile of dust where his house and family used to life, or when he was getting roughed up by a couple of street punks. Not even the cops. 'Cause the heroes would come and help them, right? Except they didn't. But... then you-know-who found me, and here we are."

Hikari remained silent, and actually looked away when Shigaraki finally turned his head to look at him. _"He's like Kyomu,"_ he somberly thought. _"He... how common is this kind of thing if he's the second person I know to do something like that? That can't just be coincidence, right? Is it?"_

It wasn't that far of a stretch. Trying to guess what kind of Quirk somebody would be born with based on their parents powers was shoddy guesswork at the best of times and completely inaccurate at the worst of times. It wasn't like breeding plants and animals for generations to consistently breed subjects with specific traits. Genes inherited from Quirks always seemed to randomly blend and fuse together, or become something entirely new, or have nothing happen at all and just have the same power pass down. Most of the time there was no telling what kind of power a kid could manifest. Which was evidently problematic when they were born with something completely destructive like Shigaraki and Kyomu.

But Kyomu's case was a isolated incident nobody knew the truth of. Shigaraki's wasn't hidden at all, but Hikari had never even heard of a case like that. Did it happen so far away that it wasn't relevant? Buried under the news? Was something like this more common than he thought and just wasn't addressed? It seemed serious considering almost a whole family had died.

"Shinka." Hikari rose his head and met Shigaraki's eyes. "What I've just told you is a gesture of trust. I don't exactly expect anything back. That said, why won't you tell me why your parents died?"

The teen sighed. _"He's not gonna take this lying down anymore. I can't tell him the truth, for Kyomu's sake. But... maybe a little bit."_ He didn't want to say anything. He would have preferred to keep the lie up, but the expectant look in the other male's eyes had him hesitating.

Not to mention the similarities between Shigaraki's story and his own had him uneasy. For a single second, he even felt a bit of sympathy shoot through him. So he took a deep breath and nodded his head.

"I told the police I did it. Said I did it on purpose because I wanted to kill them," he admitted. "That's not the truth."

Shigaraki let out an interested hum as he pressed further against the wall and placed his hand back in his pocket.

"Me and my brother were messing around. I wanted to know my Quirk's limit." He let out a heavy breath and briefly flung his hand upwards. "I dunno, I-I-we were kids and I just got a new power. Wanted to test it out. So we were messing around with our room's lights and flashlights and stuff, you know, trying to get as much light in me as possible. I wanted to see how much I could handle storing." He sighed and shook his head. "That... was a really big mistake.

"I didn't have nearly the same amount of control I did back then as I did now. I didn't roughly refine it for over a decade. And I'd already stored a lot from the sunlight from when we'd went to the park earlier that day to celebrate. I... started leaking. Light. And I just... I _felt_ it, you know? Like it was instinct or something." He let out a shuddering breath. "Well, you saw what I did to that prison, and that was after me leeching off a cheap lamp for a long time. Quirk was fresh, sure, but I had more than enough light in me. Kyomu must have known what was gonna happen, or sensed it, or whatever, I dunno. Because he was panicking, and I was panicking, we didn't know what to do, and a black portal opened right under him. I guess that the stress of it all must have activated his Void Quirk- you hear stories of stuff like that all the time. Maybe he subconsciously did it to save himself from what was about to happen. Who knows?"

At the very least, Shigaraki was paying earnest attention with a face not unlike an interested child listening to a story. Whether he was seeing straight through the lie or not, Hikari didn't have a clue, but from all outward appearances he seemed to be drawn in. Which was really all he could hope for given the circumstances.

"I exploded," Hikari continued. "House and parents got vaporized, and we lost everything but the clothes on our back. When the police questioned us, I told them it was all me and left out the parts of me and my brother using lights to charge us. My only thought was keeping him safe, you know, and if they wanted to they could have pinned Kyomu with the murder too under a collaboration charge or some nonsense like that. Or maybe they would have written it off as an accident. I dunno; like I said, I was a child. The only thing I knew about Quirk laws were strict, but from what I know now, I probably did save my brother from something. So then I was branded as a murderer and sent to prison." Finishing with a sigh, Hikari slowly blinked his eyes and turned away to face the building opposite of them. "And... that's it. I guess you and I aren't so different, huh?"

"No. No, we're not," Shigaraki quietly agreed. "You see why I don't like the society we live in? How many villains are being created because of all these Quirk laws? How many cases like yours, like mine, or like Twice are out there? Why is it that nobody's doing anything to fix it? Why is it that idiot All Might is going around saving people with a smile on his face when the very thing he is protecting is breeding more villains and ruining more lives than it's saving?" That last sentence was said with a hateful hiss, followed by Shigaraki pushing off the wall roughly. "That's why I hate it so much. It's why I hate _him_ so much. It's all broken. It needs change. And the League of Villains is the only thing willing to change it." With a frustrated growl, he removed his right and and swiped his fingers against the brick wall behind him. Five deep grooves were left in place of where the fingers scraped against it. "So why is it that nobody wants to join up with us but are willing to follow the words of some crazy ninja-wannabe killer!?"

"You're still stressing over this?" Hikari asked. "Isn't that why we came out here? So you could come clear your head over this?"

Shigaraki calmed down and slumped forwards, turning his eyes towards the mall. "Well, yeah. That and I needed to get something. Could have just ordered it like always, but... yeah. My head needed clearing." He turned to look at Hikari. "Hey since you're here, wanna come with? Maybe get something of your own?"

The other villain scratched the back of his neck. "If there's any Tang in there, sure. We ran out a week ago and orange juice isn't cutting it for me."

"Ugh." Shigaraki shook his head as the two began to walk towards the mall. "I can't understand how you can stand that swill."

"I like the citrus-y aftertaste."

They made their way to the entrance of the mall and walked in. The inside was vastly compacted with people compared to the near-barren outside, and the idle chatter from the pedestrians all around them drowned out any other noise that could be heard. The two weaved through the crowds, and made sure to keep their hooded heads low to avoid any attention.

It was a different feeling for Hikari compared to the norm that he felt. How long had it been since he'd just been outside around crowds of people like a normal person? And even then, he couldn't completely say that due to the fact the back of his mind was full of fears of being discovered by a wandering person who just happened to see his face and recognize him. He really missed those times- especially the days of his childhood when he'd wandered around crowded areas with his family.

Maybe one day he'd get to relive those days again. Until then it was getting Tang and bunkering down in a bar full of psychopaths he abhorred.

"Hey, hey, hey..." An arm was suddenly held out in front of Hikari to stop him. He looked at Shigaraki in confusion, whose head was staring forwards as his shoulders began to shake. "The hell are _they_ doing here?"

"Hm?" Hikari looked ahead. "Who's... oh. Oh, boy."

It was hard to pick them out in the crowds up ahead, but he recognized enough of the odd twenty teens near the shops further up to put the faces he'd seen at the Sports Festival and some of the faces he smashed at USJ. Kyomu's hero classmates. And if he looked harder he could actually see his brother giving one of his classmates, a short, round-faced girl, an impassive look as she pointed towards a clothing shop while a handful of others chatted excitedly around him.

Besides him, Hikari could practically feel Shigaraki seething. He could see why: that one student he really hated, Midoriya, was among the group, and had split off of them with the round-faced girl. The villain had actually taken his hand out of his pocket and began to slowly clench it in and out as his breathing sharply increased, only to then level out.

"There he is. That All Might fanboy that nearly killed me at USJ," he quietly snarled as he watched the two teens walk away. "Hmph. I hate All Might, he loves All Might, maybe he has the answers I need. Maybe I'll catch up to the brat. Have a nice chat with him."

"You're gonna get us caught," Hikari muttered besides him. "Goody-guy like that'll go to the cops the second you leave him. We'll have to flee as soon as possible. And I wanted to talk to my brother."

"Well, get your words in now, because I've already made up my mind."

And like that, Shigaraki had skulked off towards Midoriya before Hikari could even get another word in. He'd even risen a hand to attempt to stop, or at least stall, him, but by that point he'd known it was futile and lowered his hand with a grumble.

So he'd had significantly less time that he thought he did, which, from his estimate, could have been anywhere from five to ten minutes. And according to his eyes, Kyomu was ascending an escalator to the second level of the mall and was alone, away from his classmates. If ever there was a good time, it would be now.

Following him hadn't been that hard. He'd merely gone up the same escalators he had and followed him a short distance until he caught him standing outside the window of a clothing store, staring at a mannequin wearing black swim trunks. The teen's blue eyes shifted to the left when they saw the white-clad figure approach them from the reflection on the window, but then focused back on the mannequin when Hikari stepped right besides him.

"Isn't it really dangerous for you to be walking around in broad daylight?" he asked. He didn't even sound surprised as seeing his brother. "And seriously, a white hoodie? You couldn't have even gotten a wig or something? At least try to be inconspicuous?"

"Hey, why fix what isn't broken?" Hikari joked. "How've you been, Kyomu?"

"Can't complain," he said. "Just did this semester's final exams and passed with all colors of the rainbow."

"You mean flying colors?"

"Is that how it goes?" Upon his brother nodding, Kyomu groaned. "Then yeah, fine, that. And, to celebrate, our class kinda got together for a shopping spree for a little outing we're having. I didn't really wanna go, since, y'know, I'm _broke_ and everything, but Yoayorozu, I told you about her, was... actually nice and gave me some money to, uh, buy something."

"And because you're such a chivalrous guy you turned her down, right?"

"Screw that, I wanted money." The two briefly shared a grin before Kyomu pointed to the display in front of them. "We had a swimming training excursion where I only had a ratty pair of swimming shorts, so when I asked where I could get some new ones, Uraraka pointed me to this shop. Thinking of buying that pair."

Hikari nodded. "Cool, cool. I mean, our mother is turning in her grave right now due to you taking pity money, but good for you."

"I think she'll get over it," Kyomu said with a wave of his hand. "How 'bout you, bro? Regret being a villain yet and hanging around with a buncha subhuman trash?"

The small grin faded, and Hikari turned his head to look at his brother as opposed to looking at the reflection. "I dunno. You regret being a murderer yet?"

"It's been goin' pretty good so far." The black-haired teen raised his shoulder in a motion that suggested he was about to shrug them, but then paused and dropped them in a slump with a sigh. "Actually, I... I dunno. I had a talk with that... you know, Stain guy?"

Hikari raised his eyebrows. "Really? Heard something in the news, but-" Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he sighed. "Don't tell me he went missing 'cause you-"

"Yep."

"Kyomu..." he sighed, shaking his head and rubbing a hand across his face.

It made sense in retrospect. Stain wasn't hiding at all; his corpse was somewhere in a separate dimension. Nobody would ever find that, and it was extremely unlikely Kyomu would ever confess to it. It was about one of the only explanation to how he could be hiding even thought tons of heroes were looking around for him. Especially when he was so dead-set on those ideals of his.

Hard to carry out ideals when you were dead. At least it would be if his words didn't inspire other villains to pick up the torch in his stead.

 _"Why does it all keep coming back to that man? Stain?"_ Hikari wondered. _"It's like the whole world is suddenly revolving around him for some reason. Even dead and gone forever he's having such an influence. Starting to see why he irks Shigaraki so much."_

"He got me thinking," Kyomu continued, causing his brother to focus on him once more, "about ideals and reasons for doing. Reasons for fighting. I told him about my little nighttime hobby and about the truth and everything and all he did was make fun of me." A flash of frustration crossed his eyes. "Said I was nothing but a child throwing a tantrum and taking all his anger out on random villains. That my 'cause' had no message since I'm doing it in secret. That without a voice I wasn't gonna change anything." He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "In a way, he's right. Murder isn't exactly something I can advertise. The only reason I'm doing it is because I don't think villains should just be locked up forever, especially repeat offenders. And yeah, killing a handful of villains helps out, but I'm not exactly inspiring any change whatsoever by what I'm doing. And yeah, I could expand. Easily. Go at Stain's pace, maybe, but if villains start disappearing that rapidly suddenly my killings go from looking like isolated disappearances to serial killings. That causes investigations, and... I dunno. Gets real dicey at that point." He looked away from the ceiling and at his brother. "I'm not sorry for what I've done. I'm just asking myself if maybe there's a point at this juncture. That if it's worth it."

The white-haired brother nodded along to his darker counterpart. "Then quit," he suggested. "Nobody besides me knows you do this. You don't leave bodies or evidence. There's nothing tying you to any of those killings, so you could walk away and nobody would notice a difference. Go straight, keep at this hero thing. Get an actual _life_ together."

It was too late for himself, considering he was a wanted villain, but Kyomu still had a chance at a good life. His name wasn't completely tarnished and thrown in the trash like his was. He could easily see his brother becoming a hero, maybe not a great hero, but a hero nonetheless. Somebody like their mother. Just something to make Hikari feel assured in the event his plans on changing society went under with the League and landed back in prison or worse. Completely separated from his brother forever.

He wanted something, anything, to come out of all of this. Some good. That if they couldn't get their brotherly life back, that Kyomu could at least get his own.

"I don't know." Not the most assuring of answers, but at the very least it got Hikari hopeful. "I haven't really decided anything. I mean, sure, I maybe save some poor victim my victims were gonna terrorize, but I don't even know if it was gonna come to that, or if some hero woulda saved them. And I do it so infrequently that it just seems-"

"Pointless?" Hikari finished. "You've said as much. Let's not forget that what you've been doing killed a hero."

"Told you that was an accident," his brother hissed back, but then his eyes fell on the floor. "But yeah, you're right. How many people are gonna get hurt 'cause he wasn't there to save 'em? _Have_ been hurt? What if I've inadvertently hurt more people than saved?" He shook his head and looked back up at his brother's eyes. "You didn't answer my question. How's the League treating you?"

And now the light was on him. And looking back, Hikari couldn't rightfully say that he was in a better place than his brother. "I won't lie. I think I hate almost every single person in that League," he admitted. "A couple are okay. The rest are crazies that need to be locked up."

Kyomu scoffed. "Not surprising; they're villains. Why not leave?"

"Because they're my best chance at killing All Might."

"And then?" his brother asked. "Hypothetically speaking, let's say you get All Might killed. Society and its Quirk laws change so that what happened to us never happens again to anyone else. Fine, you did it, you set out to do what you wanted to do. You're still a villain that killed his parents and broke outta prison to the eyes of the public. You're still a villain." He paused, and the intense glare sent his way made Hikari turn away. "What part of this scenario makes it so that we end up being back together without heroes hunting you down? Think the League'll just let you go? Nothing'll change."

"... You think we've made mistakes?" Hikari asked after a long moment of silence.

Kyomu opened his mouth to answer, closed it in thought, then turned back to the shop display. "Maybe," he mumbled. "Think we shoulda just become politicians?"

"Doesn't really solve my whole criminal status."

A dry laugh escaped the Void user. "Ah. Right." He turned around and pressed his back up against the display window and waved a hand to the side. "Well, it's been great talking, bro, but we can't spend all day here. Everyone will get suspicious otherwise."

"Right..." His face as unenthused as possible, Hikari looked down towards the ground level of the mall. He saw Shigaraki wandering around down there, with his head turning from left to right. Likely looking for him. "I gotta go anyways. Take care, Kyomu."

"Ah-huh. You, too." They both gave half-hearted waves to one another as Hikari descended the escalators. The white-haired twin had spared one more glance up where Kyomu had been standing previously, but he was already gone. Likely into the store.

Seeing this, Hikari let out an impassive huff and quickly retreated to Shigaraki's side once he reached ground floor. The other's eyes quickly glanced over at Hikari, then looked forwards as the two walked towards the mall's main exit.

"Took ya long enough," Shigaraki said. There was a high lilt to his voice that Hikari briefly took not of, enough so that his eyes flicked to the side of Shigaraki's hood. "You were dead on with that useless brat wanting to tattle to the cops as soon as I finished. We have minutes, tops."

"Would say I told you so, but..." He shrugged. "Eh, what's the point? You get what you want? You sound a bit happy."

"Mmm, I think so. That kid and All Might, and all their ideals... maybe that's what the League has been missing all along. An ideal." His head suddenly jerked as he turned and poked at Hikari's shoulder. "Hey, by the way. You didn't blab to your brother about our plans to crash their little training camp thing, did you?"

Hikari shook his head. "Nah. Never. You don't need to worry." He grinned and looked backwards, near towards where his brother had been. "Besides. Why ruin the surprise for my brother? Chances are we're gonna have to fight again when that little operation goes down, assuming all the other villains pull their weight and nobody gets in our way." He then faced forwards, and a small grin graced his lips. "Honestly? Can't wait."

Shigaraki hummed in a curious tone, and then breathed out in confusion as he shook his head. "You say you love the guy, but you seem so excited to try stabbing him again. I don't get you."

"Of course I'm excited to fight him." As he said this, Hikari lifted his right hand. A small flash went off in the palm of his hand, and once it subsided, a small, pencil-sized sword was spinning right above his palm. "Fighting's the only time we ever get to hang out anymore. Why wouldn't I be excited?"


	25. Chapter 25

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 25- Round two**

* * *

"This is the worst it's ever been. Bar none. I'm gonna skin those cat girls. Or just use Void to freeze their tails off. Don't even know if those tails were real or just part of the costumes. Geh, doesn't matter. Gonna do it either way." There was an exhausted grunt as the sound of a body hitting a tree was heard. "Now where the hell's that camp?"

The current source of disgruntlement was from one Kyomu Shinka, who, in his civilian clothing that barely counted as acceptable for how run-down they were, was dirtied, tired, but not wounded in the slightest as he recovered on a tree in the middle of a forest dense with similar trees.

It would have been quiet, too, if it weren't for the fact that something was roaring at Kyomu and charging towards him. It could have been a dinosaur or some other large, four-legged creature by the looks of it, barring, of course, the fact it was made entirely of mud and dirt and twice the size of a house. Its life was, however, short-lived when flat Void portals quickly appeared along its body, and disappeared just as quickly. The dirt golem let out one final, low roar before it fell to pieces and died.

"Yeah, that's right. Keep sending the useless mobs that can't do shit to me since my low-effort Quirk can kill them pretty much instantly." With a groan, Kyomu peeled himself off the tree and began walking forwards. "It's gotta take effort to make those things. You gotta sleep eventually, or pass out from exhaustion. And one of us ain't running on superior genetics made in a freak accident."

He'd been in this forest for hours now. His other classmates? Likely in a better place he was. Like camp, for instance, because they did the smart thing and stuck together. And unlike him, some of them were likely good at telling directions.

Maybe it had been a bad idea to split off from them after all.

* * *

 **6 hours prior**

Class 1-A's training camp excursion was, unsurprisingly, going to take place at a large camping lodge in a section of forest privately owned by a small team of heroes. Kyomu was currently staring out of the window of the bus the entire class was on looking at said forest and the endless expanse of green below him. The bus itself was currently driving on a mountainside road, which gave a nice enough view of the landscape in front of them.

Some in the class were more enthusiastic about it than others.

"Oh man, just look at this place!" A head of dark hair not unlike his own pushed forwards from the seat behind him and out the window he was staring at. "I know they said it was a training camp and everything, but this is next level!"

Putting aside Sero's excitement, Kyomu leaned back and closed his eyes. He hadn't been in woods like these in years. The nostalgia it provided would have been some somber comfort to him if it weren't for the fact that they were going here on a school field trip. And any happy memories he had of forests was clashing harshly against the memories of botched field trips. And unfortunately for him, the bad memories were pulling through.

He wasn't worried this would end badly like the other two, though. He was, however, a bit on edge.

"What do you think, Shinka?" The teen cracked an eye open at the seat in front of him. Midoriya, green eyes wide as always, was staring down directly on him with a wide smile on his face. "This is a pretty amazing experience, huh?"

"I guess. Can't really say I'm a hundred percent thrilled, though," he admitted. "Don't exactly have the best track record with field trips."

The smile on the shorter teen's mouth lowered a fair amount. "What happened at the USJ still bothers you?"

"Nah, it's... I had a pretty bad field trip way before UA." Kyomu waved a hand. "Predictably, there was a villain and... yeah, it went about as good as you could expect." He'd opened his mouth to explain further, but a sudden shift in the bus's movement caused his eyebrows to rise slightly and for his body to sit upwards. "Unfortunately, it seems that'll have to be a conversation for another day. Looks like the ride's over."

True to his word, the bus slowly came to a halt on the road. The students filed out of the bus one by one with Aizawa leading them by the front.

All with the exception of Kyomu and Sen, the former of which had stayed behind to wake up the latter who had fallen asleep during the trip here.

"Hey. Hey, dude." An annoyed expression began to overtake Kyomu's face as he attempted to shake the bald teen awake. Despite his efforts, he remained glued to the bus seat and refused to move. "Dude, come on, nobody's this heavy a sleeper. And it's the friggin' afternoon."

He'd at least gotten some incoherent mumbling for his efforts, but so far no awake teen.

"... Okay, if that's how you wanna play it." Kyomu's previously frowning mouth upturned into a mischievous smirk as he grabbed the metal frame of the seat Sen was sitting in. The blackness of Void passed over his arm and washed over the metal for a few seconds, and then dissipated to nothing as he took his hand away. Frozen, frost covered metal was left in his hands wake as he gently grabbed Sen's face. "Heh heh, this'll wake you up. Or tear your face a bit. Eh, you're tough. It'll be fine."

And with absolutely no hesitation, Kyomu slammed Sen's face right into the cold metal.

To Sen's credit, it took a solid three seconds until he'd stirred to life. The second he did wake up was followed by screaming and flailing, but it was at least enough to let Kyomu know he'd succeeded, so he released his head. What followed next was Sen letting out a long-drawn hiss as he peeled his face off the metal, before he was finally released with an audible pop.

Kyomu burst out laughing when he turned his head to reveal a large, red mark across his left cheek.

"You're a dick sometimes. You know that?" the bald teen grumbled. This only caused the other to laugh even harder. "What were you gonna do if you actually froze my face to the seat?"

"Ah, I wasn't that worried about it. Todoroki's outside." With a loud sigh, Kyomu leaned back against the previously-frozen seat and gestured out the window. "We're at our stop, and you weren't getting up. What would you have preferred, me or Iida? Because I can guarantee you Iida would have done something horrifying." He scrunched up his face and turned towards the window. "Like do that thing where he chops at the air. And _lectures_. Ugh, I like the guy, but sometimes- _eugh_!"

Both teens became startled, Sen moreso when Kyomu looked at the window and jumped back upon seeing somebody's face pressed against the glass. They had no idea whose face it was; the face of an unknown blonde woman, stretching right against the window as she was smiling widely at them.

And for whatever reason she had gloves in the shape of paws.

"Hey there, kittens!" The sheer amount of positive energy lacing her voice threw both teens for a loop, and made Kyomu in particular painfully wince. "What're you doing on the bus? The fun's outside!"

"What the hell is that thing?" Kyomu asked, stepping back in a small amount of horror from the female _thing_ staring right at them.

"I believe it's a female member of the human species," Sen supplemented. "Homo Sapiens. Which grew a lot more varied from member to member after the whole Quirk thing, but you get the idea."

The horror-stricken look on Kyomu's face was replaced with a deadpan stare, followed by him slowly swiveling his head towards Sen, who was slyly grinning. "Thank you for the biology lesson, Sen. Really. Your input's invaluable."

"Hah hah, no problem. Anytime." He pointed towards the door. "Seriously, though, we should probably go. She's licking the glass."

"Yeah."

They did get off the bus rather quickly in order to escape the glare of the strange cat lady. Outside on the street Aizawa and another feline-dressed female, a brunette, was addressing the class. A third one with teal hair was watching the class with a large smile on her face as she swayed her pawed gloves from side to side.

It honestly looked rather creepy to Kyomu's eyes.

"Where were you two?" The two teens looked down at Midoriya, who jabbed Kyomu in the ribs in order to get his attention. "You know Mr. Aizawa doesn't like it when you wander off like that!"

"Gimme a break. Sen was sleeping," Kyomu explained, jerking his thumb towards the teen next to him. He simply rolled his eyes as a result. "What's with the weirdo cat ladies? They're real creepy on the eyes."

Midoriya' eyes narrowed in confusion. "Cat la- oh!" They widened, and he then pointed to the women in question. "Those women are in the hero group that own and protect this whole mountain and the surrounding forest around it."

He sputtered. "They own the whole mountain and forest? Seriously?" It was such a reeling fact that Kyomu had taken a step backwards and had held a hand to his head just so he could think on it properly. After a few moments, he lowered his hand and shook his head. "Man, the universe is just rubbing it in at this point."

It seemed like no matter where he went, there was someone or something with an obscene amount of money that existed just for the sole purpose of mocking him. Whether it be an institution like UA or professional heroes, or even his own classmates, they all seemed obscenely rich. Meanwhile he was poorer than dirt. Not that he really ever cared about money; a minimalist lifestyle was practically ingrained into him at this point. And it wasn't like this path he'd chosen was for the money in the first place.

Didn't mean he didn't wish to have a few yen extra around from time to time to fix the orphanage up.

"Yeah, that's professional heroes for you," Midoriya said with a small chuckle. "Especially a renowned group like Wild, Wild Pussycats."

Kyomu just stared. He stared right at Midoriya while the name played in his mind to make sure he'd heard it right, and then he continued to blankly stare in muted disbelief. "Wild, Wild Pussycats," he repeated in a toneless drone. "That can't be their name. I don't believe it."

"Oh, it is. Why? What's wrong with it?"

"It's just..." Childish? Juvenile? A little inappropriate if one with a lesser-developed mind dwelled on it for longer than twelve seconds? All of these played out in Kyomu's mind. "It's a little lame, not gonna lie."

"'A little lame' you say?"

Kyomu stiffened as a shadow fell right over him and weight began pressing against his back, causing some heat to begin to spread through his costume and to his body. He slowly looked up at, from his perspective, the upside-down figure pressing right against his back. A large man: muscular, tall, and would be menacing if it weren't for the fact he had on a similar pair of oversized cat gloves, tail, and some kind of cat-nose mask. At least he thought it was a mask.

A little of Kyomu died upon seeing the abomination to fashion standing right against him. The fact he had on about the same amount of clothing as the other catlike heroes, which was little, only made it worse.

"The Wild, Wild Pussycats is a name said with pride all around Japan, and especially to those that have been helped by our specialized forest-rescue operations." It was a crime to both Kyomu's eyes and ears seeing and hearing such a scantily-clad man speak in such a deep, menacing voice. He'd even entertained the idea of using Void to escape this cursed conversation he was having just to try and save any sanity left inside of him. "Heroes all around choose the names of both their hero personas and hero groups from the heart. That what it is to be a hero, kid. Where's your Plus Ultra if your heart ain't in it?"

"About a decade back that way," Kyomu intoned as he pointed down the road. "If you look hard enough... nah, you still wouldn't find it."

"Hmph." He couldn't see his eyes behind the eye-mask covering them save for the exposed whites, but the dark-haired teen imagined there was a lot of judging going on behind those eyes. He was quickly proven wrong when the large man smiled widely and rubbed his closed fist on top the teen's head. "You got spunk. I like it."

Kyomu considered it a mercy when he then walked off to join the rest of the cat heroes. "These guys can't be for real," he muttered to Midoriya.

"They are," he affirmed with a serious nod. "And along with giving us the land to train on for the time being, it looks like they'll be assisting Mr. Aizawa and Class 1-B's teacher with our training."

At that, the taller teen scoffed. "I can't take them seriously with those outfits, man. They're dressed as cats. What could they possibly do to us?"

* * *

Drop the whole class off the road and into the forest below using a earth-manipulating Quirk one of the cat women had for one. Telling them the only way they were getting food and a place to sleep was by making it to the campsite on their own for another.

There were multiple huffs and grunts as the entire class of twenty-two tumbled down the dirt hill right towards the bottom. Some were able to stabilize themselves using their Quirks, while the rest unfortunately had to wait for gravity to help them come to a halt. Kyomu and Sen were among those few, while others like Midoriya and Sero could use their high mobility to their advantage.

It was a fact Kyomu was sorely jealous of as he dusted the dirt off from his clothes along with any others who had been forced to roll to a halt.

"I hate 'em already..." Kyomu grumbled under his breath as he looked back up at the road they were all just dropped from- which was so far up that he couldn't even see anything save for a few dots looking down at them. And he was sure there was wide grins on all their faces. "Where do they get off...?"

"Aw, come on, dude..." Sen groaned as he slowly stood up from the ground. "Yeah, sure, they didn't have to make a landslide to send us down here and all, but- hey, you feel that?"

He did indeed. Kyomu, along with the rest of the class, looked down in shock as the ground they stood on began to rumble. The trees around them began to shake as well, and leaves were falling down on them in large piles as the distant sound of stomping was heard.

"What's goin' on!?" Kaminar cried out as he struggled to maintain his footing. There were even sparks of yellow electricity arcing defensively off his body as he looked around. "I-it's like there's an earthquake or something!"

Behind him, Jiro was whipping her head around wildly as her earlobes were pointing in various directions to try and hear anything to help them. They then suddenly both pointed towards the forest, her eyes turning in that direction and then widening. "Guys, we got trouble! Big trouble over there!"

Everybody had turned towards the direction she was pointing to when they heard her alarmed voice. What they saw approaching from the distance definitely explained the disturbance they all felt: a large, house-sized beast made completely from dirt. And it was heading right towards them.

"It's a... it's a dinosaur!" Kirishima gasped as both his arms hardened, but then a confused look came across him. "Or a badger? Some kinda weirdly-shaped bear, maybe? Wait, what _is_ it?"

"It's a monster that probably wants to kill us. Or eat us. Not necessarily in that order." Out of everybody's reaction, Kyomu's was the most subdued. Most of his focus was still aimed at being upset at the cat heroes above, which caused his expression and demeanor to be rather lax considering the situation. Despite this, indiscernible black shapes still ran along his arms as he hunched forwards and stared at the approaching golemn. "I don't really think it matters what it is."

He would have used Void to cut it to pieces, too, if it weren't for the fact that Koda had run right into the path of the monster.

 _"Koda...! Right. His thing is animals."_ The black shapes around Kyomu's arms slowly faded as he stepped back while keeping his eyes on the teenager with the rock-like skin. _"He's hoping to talk thing thing down. Hope it works. It's gettin' way too close for comfort here."_

Koda had tried commanding the approaching monster- a surprising feat, really, especially considering he barely every talked above a whisper- but, despite his Quirk, it was still barreling right towards him. Because of this, Koda was frozen shock and began to unleash a shrilly scream as it drew closer.

Then it exploded.

"You morons!" Eyes turned up to the sky to spot a blonde teen flying overhead with sparks and smoke leaking out from his palms. The usual feral snarl was worn over his face as he regarded them. "These things are made from a Quirk, so just kill them already!"

It wasn't clear if others began reacting due to them hearing Bakugo's words or because they'd figured the trick out on their own around the same time, but soon after Iida had sped towards the monster while a sheet of ice appeared overhead as Todoroki skated towards them. One monster nearby even fell as Midoriya zipped off its headless body with green sparks arcing over his body.

"Well, if that's the trick," Kyomu muttered. The class all around him were either grouping together to take on the monsters or going about it alone in some cases. "Ah, alright. I'll play along."

A golemn of mud approached him. It stopped when a line of Void went through it, and quickly fell apart. An unsatisfied hum left Kyomu. "Yeah, that's about right."

"Hey, Kyomu!" He turned his head right in time to see Sen punching the leg of a golemn out. It fell to its knees, where Yaoyorozu then proceeded to pull a sledgehammer out from her body and bring it down on its head. "What are we doing here!?"

"Ah, you... you know what? I think I'm just gonna go on my own," Kyomu shouted back. "Party here's big enough as it is. You guys go on."

"You're going alone, Shinka?" Raising the sledgehammer off from the pile of mud and sent him a questioning look. "I'm not sure that is the wisest decision."

He waved her concerns off and began walking away from his classmates and towards the direction the golemns were coming from. "Nah, nah, it's fine. We'll make it a game, even. I bet I can find the came alone before all of you working together can."

* * *

 **Present**

In his defense he had just been trying to have a spot of fun given the circumstances. And it was easy to get turned around when all the trees looked the exact same.

"Man, they're probably all at the camp by now. Laughing at me," Kyomu bitterly grumbled under his breath. "Least I'm sort of not bored."

He'd say not completely bored, but the fact he was able to instantly kill these golemns really took the challenge out of it. At this point it was just tedium. An obstacle as he attempted to find where that damn camp was.

So, he'd kept walking.

And walking.

And eventually he'd walked into a large clearing, and in the distance he saw some cabins. In front of those cabins were some tables and grills set up. His entire class was there, making and eating food while laughing and chatting happily among themselves.

 _"Goddammit, I shoulda just stayed with 'em."_

His dragging feet scraped trenches across the ground as he made his way to the tables. By now they all noticed him, disheveled with leaves hanging off his clothing. Most of the looks he got were smirks of victory mixed with sympathetic eyes.

"I don't wanna hear it," he grumbled as he sat down at the table. He glanced towards the left, and he saw two of the Pussycats, Ragdoll and Pixiebob, passed out on the ground with Mandalay watching over them. "What happened with them?" he asked.

Todoroki, who he'd sat down next to, regarded the two women briefly before looking at Kyomu. "You were out there for so long that they wore themselves out using their Quirks to track and attack you," he explained. "What exactly were you trying to prove here?"

"I just wanted some fun, man. And don't give me that look," he snapped when he saw the teen's incredulous look. "The objective was that we make it here. Sure I took a really roundabout way, but I made it. And look at that-" he pointed his thumb at the women, "- if those were villains I woulda taken two out just by taking so long."

"I'm... not sure that's how it works," Todoroki countered.

"Probably not, no," Kyomu agreed, "but regardless I'm taking this as a win." He looked past the passed-out women and, to his confusion, he saw Midoriya laying on the ground with his hands covering his crotch. Iida was standing over him with a mouth open in silent horror. "Hey." He pointed to the pair. "What happened to Midoriya?"

Todoroki turned his head to the direction he was pointing at. "Oh. Some child punched him in his privates."

"Ah."

* * *

Barring the trip here, the campgrounds were actually rather nice. Good lodgings, decent food which, by Kyomu's standards, may as well have been from a five-star restaurant, and the outdoor environment was a nice change of pace.

And they even had a hot spring, which Class 1-A was partaking in before the actual training started tomorrow. Of course, there was a giant, wooden wall dividing the springs in half so the males could have one side and females the other, but even with that wall each side was plenty spacious.

At least Kyomu suspected the female side was spacious. He didn't actually get to see it as he was soaking in the male side with the rest of the male side of the class.

"Would it surprise you guys that this is the first time I've ever been in one of these things?" Kyomu asked as he scooped up and handful of the hot water and dumped it on his face. "I don't see why everybody's always going on about these things. I'm not feeling anything special."

Felt lukewarm, if he was being completely honest with himself. Though that could have just been his... everything-resistant body. Everybody else seemed to be liking it if their faces, the more expressive ones, at least, had anything to say about it.

It probably was just him now that he thought about it.

"You're being too harsh." Water was dumped on top of Kyomu's head, causing him to sputter and shake his arms back in forth in panic. Everybody who had seen this chuckled quietly as Kyomu looked up harshly at the perpetrator. It was Shoji, who had used all six of his arms to dump water on him. "Loosen up. That's the entire point of hot springs."

"So they say." Kyomu tilted his head. "You, uh, you're even wearing that face mask in here, huh? Even when you and everyone else just has towels?"

Shoji nodded. "Yes. My mouth is, uh..." One of his appendages which had shifted into a mouth moved closer to him. "It's not a pleasant sight," the mouth whispered.

"I see." A pause. "Can I see it?"

"No."

"Oh." His shoulders slumped in disappointment. "Okay."

He waded away from the tall teen to the wall separating the springs, and leaned against it. This had lasted until a few seconds later, where he heard heavy breathing right besides him. He turned his head and, upon seeing nothing, looked down.

Kyomu wished he could say he was surprised by the sight. He wasn't, though.

"Mineta. You can't give it a rest for two damn seconds, man?" He asked as he waded to the small teen's side and crouched down. Even after doing that he wasn't level with his eyes, which remained fixated on the wall. "Yes, there're naked girls over there. But there's no way you're getting through that wall."

"Nonsense," Mineta huskily replied. Kyomu shuddered. "There's plenty of people here with Quirks that could get through. Even you could probably use Void to-"

"Oh, sure, if I wanted to be expelled and was actually interested in breaching my friends' privacy all for the sake of seeing some T and A this wall'd be history by now," the taller teen said. "But I ain't. So yeah."

He wouldn't even have to destroy the wall if he was really serious. He could just go over it, or even just use Void to get to the top. It'd be easy. Nobody would even notice if he was fast enough. All the better if he had a phone to take pictures.

Good thing Mineta just had sticky balls for a power. He didn't want to think about what he'd use a power like Void for.

"Of course you're not interested. Why would you be? Cool, level-headed Shinka would never be caught dead doing something like that." The teen's was almost in a trance as he pressed his face against the wood. "But beyond this cruel gate of chastity is Nirvana, Shinka. The forbidden lands men like us can only dream of. Paradise... forever out of reach." His eyes suddenly lit up in realization, and slowly he looked up to the top of the wall. "But maybe... just maybe for me it's within reach." He stuck his hand up and tore one of his Pop-Offs off from his head. "I'm scaling this wall."

"Mineta, this is a gross invasion of the girls' right to privacy and a possible breach of basic human rights, as well as against school regulations. It also reinforces the girls viewing you as that weird pervy guy that drools at them sometimes and, honestly, you're more decent than this." Kyomu shrugged. "But hey, you're your own man. Go for it."

The short teen slammed the dark purple ball on the wall. "All I needed to hear."

"Absolutely not!"

Upon hearing the shout, Kyomu turned his head slightly towards the source. Mineta didn't even flinch. From the side of his eyes, Kyomu was able to see Iida wade frantically through the water towards them while keeping his arms bent ant ninety-degree angles and pumping them furiously. "Peeping on the girls in their side of the hot sprint is completely against UA rules and regulations!" he screamed as Mineta reached for another Pop-Off. "I demand you cease this at once, Mineta!"

The Pop-Off came off with no regard for Iida's demands.

"Gah!" Iida's face grew panicked. "I'll never be able to reach him in time with the water slowing me down!" He looked to Kyomu for assistance. "Shinka! Quickly! You must stop him!"

"Hey, a butterfly." Iida's screams grew shrill as Kyomu's eyes slowly followed a passing butterfly as it fluttered past him. "You just don't see sights like that in the city anymore. Cute."

"Shinka, no!" Iida tried his best to reach Mineta, but by then it was too late. The small teen had already began scaling the wall by using his Pop-Off's as hand holds, and was rapidly ascending. "Mineta, NOOO!"

"The point of UA is to teach us to surpass walls!" Mineta screamed down to them as he climbed up. "This wall between me and the promised land is but another wall for me to surpass! This is what it means to go Plus Ultra!"

"No, it isn't!"

Kyomu's eyes left the butterfly and lifted up to the wall. They widened in surprise when they saw Mineta was only a quarter of the way from reaching the top. _"Wow,"_ he thought, _"he scampered up there faster than a squirrel. So that's the power of Mineta's motivation. Imagine the kind of progress he could make if he was asexual."_ It was almost impressive, in a sad, dismissive sort of way. Something one couldn't help to acknowledge, no matter how much they didn't want to. _"Godspeed, you strange little boy."_

And he'd actually made it to the top of the wall, too. The most delighted look had lit up on his face right as he reached the edge- only for it to be wiped immediately when a small boy appeared at the top and pushed Mineta screaming back down to earth. And unfortunately for Iida, he was right in Mineta's path.

Kyomu had scarcely ever seen a more painful sight than Mineta landing ass-first right onto Iida's face, followed by them both falling into the water and floating face-first with frozen looks of horror on both their faces.

"Oof." The Void user waded over to Iida's side and sent down a look of pity on him. "I know you like to brown nose, man, but I think this is taking it a bit far. Seriously, though, you okay?"

The only response given was a slight moan from the tall teen right before he sunk below of the surface of the water.

"Mh-hm." Nodding, Kyomu turned to Mineta and crouched down. "Mineta. Hey, Mineta." He poked him in the shoulder. "Mineta, you good?"

"So close to heaven... only for the cruel fates to slam the sterling gates in my face..." he whispered as his eyes glassily stared upwards.

"Mineta, did you get to see the other side of the hotspring? Was it any bigger than this side? I need to know."

He would never receive his answer, as Mineta, too, sunk down to the depths. Shallow depths, but depths none the less.

"Hey, you guys!" Kyomu, with a look of utter disappointment, didn't even look up from the spot where Mineta sunk as someone waded over to the spot he was standing in. He briefly saw a flash of green out of the corner of his eye, indicating Midoriya, though he only looked up when he was addressed directly by the other student. "Shinka, I saw Iida and Mineta get into an accident. Are they okay? Where are they?"

Humming, Kyomu eyed the two spots where the students sank through the water, and then looked at Midoriya. "Ah, they're fine," he said, and then looked up at the wall where Mineta had been pushed. He briefly saw the same child before he disappeared out of sight. "Hey, isn't that the kid that ball-punched you?"

"Y... yeah," Midoriya admitted. "That's Kota. The Pussycats are looking after him, so he's staying with them here right now."

"Ah." Nodding in understanding, Kyomu turned back to the green-haired teen. "You should punch him back."

"What!?" Midoriya shook his head. "No! Shinka, I can't assault a child!"

"Look, retaliation is fair play. And if it's wrong to submit testicular assault on a child- yeah, you're right, this sounds super bad now that I'm hearing it out of my mouth." A dry chuckle left Kyomu, followed by him looking down sheepishly as the other student gave him a withering glare. "You know what?" he said suddenly, stretching his arms up while yawning, "IIII am beat. Gonna dry off and hit the cabins. See you all in training tomorrow."

* * *

The day had started early and miserable, just as Kyomu had predicted. They'd all been lined up in front of the cabins while their training was explained to them, and briefly had encountered Class 1-B. The teacher leading them had, of course, been Vlad King, and Kyomu had briefly locked eyes with the older male before they both looked away. He looked completely fine, so at least he knew he hadn't bashed his face too hard into the cement. He'd passed that exam, though barely. He'd been told later on he'd had points docked due to "excessive use of force" on the fake villain.

Excessive force wasn't really in his vocabulary, and as long as he and Sen had passed, he hadn't cared all that much.

Training itself was simple Quirk training; they'd be working their Quirks out to grow them stronger. Due to the fact that everybody had completely different powers, this, of course, meant that almost everybody would be training separately in various ways to strengthen those powers. People like Yaoyorozu and Sato were paired up for the meager fact that she could make sweets until she passed out and Sato would eat them until he either became stronger or went into a food coma.

That was the basis, at least. Sero was unrolling an ungodly amount of tape out of his arms. Iida was running. Tokoyami was in a cave somewhere training Dark Shadow. Sen was having Midoriya punch his arms while powered up and then was himself punching boulders.

And what was Kyomu doing compared to all of this? Holding his breath.

"There isn't a lot of ways to help improve your Quirk, especially at the rate you've been going," Aizawa said. Kyomu, meanwhile, was panting on the ground right next to him as he struggled to catch his breath with a stopwatch in his hand. "You've been making new techniques all on your own, though in terms of improving the actual power, there isn't much to say. Its only limitation is that you need to see where you're putting portals, but besides that there's no limit to how many you set or how long they remain active. And there's not really anything we can do to train the line of sight limitation."

"So why am I doing this again?" Kyomu grumbled under his breath as he rose to his feet.

"You can remain inside of Void unharmed unlike everything else, right?" Aizawa asked, to which the teen nodded. "Escaping from potential danger is a rather useful skill. But obviously you can't stay in there forever. You're resistant to cold, evidently, but an organic body has limits in an absolute zero environment. More pressing, though, is the lack of oxygen. So we're gonna be training your lungs to be able to stay in Void as long as possible."

It was sound enough logic. Too bad it didn't really work out too well.

"You know time doesn't flow in that place, right?" Kyomu asked. "I can't just hop in, wait a couple minutes, and hop back out. I could stay in there for a year and not even a second would have passed outside."

"Really?" He didn't look so surprised, though the teacher's eyes did widen a smidgen. "How does that work?"

"Something to do with the fact that there's no light and gravity in a dimension filled with absolutely nothing. I dunno, I tried researching it online but then it went into quantum physics and my eyes started to glaze over." Granted this was years ago and nowadays he'd probably be able to understand those science articles fine, but he didn't really see the need to understand it more thoroughly when he knew the basics. Power worked just because. That's all he required at the end of the day. "Yeah, cold and pressure'll still ruin anything but me, but otherwise no time'll pass. Freaked me out when I first tried going in there entirely. Was worried I was gonna come out and five hundred years had passed or something."

"I see." A scowl had placed itself on Aizawa's face as he crossed his arms. "Would have been nice to have read that on your Quirk form. It's awfully vague on your Quirk now that I think on it."

Wasn't really that surprising. He hadn't updated it all that much since his power was first discovered based on the fact he didn't feel like updating a document he didn't care about every time a new aspect of his Quirk was discovered.

Aizwa would have lectured him if he said any of this, though, so instead he just shrugged. "I can just do some strength training. Y'know, lift some weights, stuff like that," he suggested. It was better than holding his breath for five minutes at a time, at least. And maybe even more productive, though he doubted it.

Fortunately, the teacher had agreed with him and waived him off to where they had set up some gym equipment on the other end of the camp so he could just go work out until the training day was over.

No matter what he did, though, he suspected he was going to be bored out of his mind regardless of what he did.

* * *

Well, he'd been right, but at least it was over. And also just going into night, because when UA said you were training all day, they really meant it.

Everybody was exhausted, though not completely tired. And the UA staff and cat heroes were at least a little merciful, because now they would be playing a game. A game where Class 1-B would be pairing off to scare pairs of randomly-assigned Class 1-A students. Except, of course, for the ones who had failed the exam to get here. Those people were dragged away by Aizawa's scarf back to the cabins for "extra lessons".

Kyomu could still hear Ashido's anguished screams from all the way on the other side of the camp site.

But that was their problem, and right now Kyomu's own problem was finding the person whose paper slipped matched his. Of course, the first person he'd went to to compare tickets had been Sen. His face fell slightly when he saw his bald friend standing next to Todoroki.

"Sorry, man," he said. His grin seemed forced with his teeth showing as he nodded his head to the heterochromatic teen. "We got paired up. Isn't that right, Todoroki?"

"Yes, that's right." He seemed no notice how tense Sen was, as he turned his head to the side to address him. "Is something the matter, Eikyo?"

"No. Nothing." Sen shuffled away. "You're just kinda intense to be around."

"... Since when?"

 _"I'm out."_ Already a silent argument began brewing between the two, causing Kyomu to egress as quickly as possible. No doubt it would do the two some good, Sen socializing with someone else and Todoroki socializing period, but just because it was good for them didn't mean he wanted to be a part of it. Especially if it progressed to yelling. Which, while not definite, was possible. Especially since one of them was Sen.

Fifty-fifty, really.

"Oi, Void." Kyomu bumped into somebody and came to an abrupt halt. He looked up and saw Bakugo scowling at him with his own ticket held up. "We got paired up, so come on."

"Oh." Paired up with Bakugo. Suddenly Sen's position didn't seem so bad. "Uh... cool. Let's go."

* * *

On second thought, being paired with Bakugo wasn't the worst person he could have gone with.

Their walk through the dark forest path that wound through a large section of forest and back to the campsite was rather quiet. They hadn't spoken at all in that time, and Kyomu suspected that silence would only be broken once the group assigned to scare them showed up to actually spook them. Otherwise it was soft footfalls and the occasional sound of a woodland animal.

Peaceful in a silent, reflective kind of way. Too bad Kyomu already revisited all his happy memories five times over since coming to this camping site.

But again, things could have been worse. He could have been paired with Koda- and as sweet as a person he was, he likely would have been rendered an annoying, whimpering mess before they even got to the fright. Or even Iida. He probably would have just run away and left him behind. And frankly speaking he wasn't gonna be ready to confront Iida for at least another week after the hotspring incident.

"Hey." Roused from his thoughts, Kyomu glanced over his side to Bakugo. He was still facing forwards, though his eyes were focused in on him. "Did you tell Deku to start calling me by my real name?" he asked. "He stopped using that dumb nickname he gave me."

"I did," Kyomu confirmed. "He said the only reason he did it was because that's what he always called you. But you always looked like you were about to have an aneurysm every time he called you it, so I suggested he call you by your real name."

"... Hmph." Bakugo faced back forwards. "You didn't have to butt in and say that."

Kyomu shrugged. "No, I didn't. But this way I don't feel like you're gonna kill him."

"I wasn't ever gonna kill the squirt."

"Day one you almost blew him in half."

The blonde opened his mouth, closed it, then growled under his breath as his footfalls became heavier. A sure sign of agitation, but the fact he didn't go off on Kyomu about it suggested that he accepted he may have gone too far already.

"Why are you two so awkward around one another?" Kyomu asked. "You know how awkward the room gets whenever you two interact with one another? I mean, even as kids." He turned his head to Bakugo. "I remember that stream. That day with my brother. Even back then you were hard on Midoriya. What gives?"

"My _problem_ ," Bakugo hissed, "is that Quirk of his." The hands at his sides balled into fists as he bared his teeth. "All his life, ever since we were kids, it was all be a hero this and become a hero that. And like stupid kids we kept arguing about who would be the number one hero after All Might, like we'd be rivals or some shit. And when he said he didn't have a Quirk, he was still trying his best to be a hero! Like he was... mocking me that he was so great and so analytical that he didn't need a powerful Quirk like me!" His hands shot up to his head and ran through his hair in a frenzied fashion. "Then UA gets here and the going gets tough and oh, surprise! He had that stupid strength Quirk of his all along. Then he goes and starts contradicting everything by copying my movements, and he's just... ergh! He's frustrating to even think about."

Kyomu's brows furrowed. "Midoriya... told me he was a late Quirk bloomer," he slowly stated. "That his Quirk didn't manifest until right before going into UA, and that the reason he was so terrible with controlling it was because he hasn't had it for long."

"Is that the story he told you?" Bakugo scoffed. "The one he told me was even worse. Said that All Might _gave_ him his Quirk. That it was some kind of weird Quirk that could be passed on and that the Quirk isn't his, but All Might's." A bitter chuckle left his mouth as he shook his head. "I don't know what the hell is up with his Quirk. He won't be straight with anybody about it."

The black-haired teen hummed. "Passed down from All Might? Sounds unbelievable," he agreed. "About as unbelievable as his Quirk suddenly manifesting right before his UA entrance exam like he told me."

They both shared a glance, and then silently nodded to one another in understanding. Who knew what the deal with Midoriya's Quirk was when he wouldn't tell the truth about it? He couldn't have had it all his life and just hid it- he'd been making obvious improvements with it at a rapid pace. Progress like that would have been there since the start of UA if he'd always had it, and besides, doctors records would have been there.

So when had he obtained it? Why make up different stories for different people? Which one was true and which one was fake? Were any of them true? They both sounded equally unbelievable. A third one that was the truth?

Kyomu stared down at the ground. _"Too little facts,"_ he thought. _"He got that Quirk recently, right before UA. That's the only solid fact. The rest... who knows?"_ He sighed. _"Ah, whatever. I don't really care. It's Midoriya's business and has nothing to do with me. And besides, we're not here to talk about his Quirk, however mysterious it may be."_

"Your hands aren't exactly clean in this, either," Kyomu said. "You were acting aggressive at that stream. Midoriya implied that, throughout your childhoods, you... kept being aggressive towards him." Though Bakugo didn't confirm or deny this, the way he avoided Kyomu's eyes and grumbled under his breath said enough. "Just patch things up," he suggested. "It's getting bothersome between you two. I'd lock you both in Void until you made up if it weren't for the fact it'd kill the both of you."

"Hah!" The blonde barked a laugh out. "I'm not apologizing for anything. Not to _him_. And like your Quirk could kill me."

"Oh, forgive me. I didn't realize Explosion gave you the ability to breath _nothing_ and was able to warm you in absolute zero temperature while simultaneously cool you since your blood would practically be on fire at that point due to the zero pressure." He chuckled at Bakugo's uneasy look. "Don't ask me how I survive in there. Might be the genes. Might be I have a natural resistance. Quirk logic."

The other teen slowly nodded. "Right... You mentioned the gene thing before." He paused. "Is that why your brother is so strong and managed to beat Endeavor? And beat us?"

"... I didn't get to be strong enough to break through concrete and practically regenerate if my wounds from USJ have anything to say through lifting weights," Kyomu muttered after a long pause. "A large part of my success in life, UA and otherwise, is because of my genes, yes. I won't pretend it wasn't. And he has them, too." He lifted his pale hand up to his face and turned it back and forth. "Just because we were born better doesn't mean we _are_ better, though. If that thinking was correct than that Nomu at USJ should have beaten All Might. That's what he was for, right?" Bakugo's head snapped to Kyomu's after hearing him, and then slowly nodded in agreement. "Nevertheless, we have an unfair edge against everyone else. I try not to hold it over people. You know that. Against my brother, though, it's a fact I have to acknowledge. I want to believe that heroes with good Quirks and experience could beat him, but he already defeated the second-best. He held a sword to All Might's chest and nearly killed him. Now I'm doubtful anybody could do it but me since we're the same." He lowered his hand and slowly met Bakugo's eyes. "And it _will_ be me, Bakugo. Nobody else has the right. He's mine and mine alone."

"Tch." Bakugo pocketed his hands. "Not a very hero-thing to say, but I get you." He scowled. "The way that bastard just steamrolled over us, though..."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. His Quirk is a bit unfair."

"Yeah? How much of that was a Quirk and how much of it was bullshit genes?"

"That... I could not tell you."

The only sound onward was the silent sound of their feet hitting dead leaves and twigs. Both were deep in thought, though Bakugo continued to steal glances at the black-haired teen, but otherwise didn't say anything.

Of course, then they'd rounded a bend in the path and a lipless head that they recognized as one of Class 1-B's students popped up off the ground. They stopped dead in their tracks and just dumbly stared at the head looking up at them as muffled laughter from what was for sure his partner echoed from the trees nearby.

* * *

"The woods, huh? Haven't been in a place like this since right before prison." A pale hand flexed open, and a small, diamond-shaped object made of light blipped into existence right above the hand and slowly rotated. "We couldn't have done this during the day? I'm no good at night."

"There's more advantages to attacking right now." Red eyes tore themselves away from the floating diamond to the dark-haired villain behind him, who had blue flames softly licking the tips of his fingers. "Less visibility and all the students and staff are spread out because of the exercise they're doing right now. Better to hit them now than later when they're all grouped up. Divide and conquer." Dabi's scarred face frowned as the diamond turned into a heart. "You charged up beforehand, though, right?"

Hikari nodded, and then closed his fist and shattered the heart. "Yeah, yeah. You're gonna be starting a forest fire to start some panic, right?" he asked. "I might stay near the flames for light, just in case. Hopefully my brother will be near them, but if not I'll try to kite him over. Eh, Kyomu might not go for it, though. He knows I need external light to do my tricks."

They were all situated on a small cliff that oversaw the campsite both Class 1-A and 1-B were in, along with their hero chaperones. Hikari, Dabi, Toga, and all the new villains he had been with to retrieve their costumes and gear from that warehouse. The League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad, which he was now captain of.

He really hated that name. Sounded childish and didn't make a good anagram.

"So our target is just that Bakugo guy, correct?" Hikari asked to confirm, to which Dabi nodded.

Hikari tried not to question his leader, but organizing an entire mission with the new recruits this risky based on a whim seemed just a bit too much. Just because of a photo. A photo of a rabid teen at the Sports Festival they needed to muzzle just so he didn't bite All Might when he gave him the medal he got for second place. Apparently that was prime recruitment material.

In a way, he understood the logic. A prospective hero applicant turning over to villainy, and a powerful one at that, would go a real long way for them. Conversely, if they botched the mission or he just said no, this would all be a waste of time and possibly bodies if any of them were taken in and arrested. But, Shigaraki was the boss. So Hikari would do what he said.

"Hm. Alright, then you all know the drill." They had a plan, at least. A horribly loose one, but they would have so many villains out there while everyone was spread out that hopefully it wouldn't matter. "Dabi will go to the cabin Eraser Head and the washouts are in after he sets up his fire distraction. Twice, you'll support him with doubles. Toga, you're gonna go and try and collect as much blood from people as possible. I'm gonna find my brother and keep him busy. Everyone else will spread out, attack anybody they see, and grab Bakugo if you see him. Dabi, Nomu up and running?"

"That's right."

"Alright. In that case..." Flattening his hand, Hikari stuck the appendage towards the campgrounds. "LOVVAS, fan out."

He expected to hear a lot of shuffling and movement behind him. He did not expect to hear absolutely nothing followed by an awkward cough. When he turned his head around in confusion, he just saw everybody giving him strange looks.

"... LOVVAS?" Dabi asked, causing everyone to nod along with him.

"Y-yeah. 'Cause, you know, League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad. LOVVAS. What, I gotta say the whole thing every time?" Nobody would answer him, though they did avoid his gaze when he looked to them all for help. "Really, guys? Real- O-okay, yeah, fine. Whatever." He cleared his throat. "League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad, move out."

This time they did all move, and even more so they seemed to be in a rush to move past him. He didn't at all miss that teasing look Toga had passed him right as she rushed past him. And soon enough he was left alone on the cliff.

"League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad," Hikari muttered to himself. "Sounds like something out of a cartoon. Sheesh."

* * *

Well, they had successfully been scared. Loosely, at the very least. Seeing a head pop up out of the ground was less scary and more shocking for all of one second before they had realized what was happening. And apparently the group of 1-B students took their stunned silence for fear when in fact the two teens had been trying to work out in their heads if the other students were serious or not.

Fifteen minutes of walking the path later they still couldn't wrap their heads around it.

"I mean, they tried," Kyomu offered. "You can't say they didn't try."

Bakugo rolled his eyes. "I don't think I'd call what they did 'trying'."

"Give them credit. They weren't working with... much..." Trailing off, Kyomu slowly came to a halt and looked around. "Hey, these trees look familiar to you?"

The blonde came to an halt and shot him an irritated glare. "They're trees. They all look the same," he growled. "The hell do you expect?"

"Yeah, but, like, I coulda sworn we've walked past these particular trees a couple times already." He looked down at the ground. "We're still on the trail, right?"

They both examined the ground they were walking on. There was no discernible path they were treading on. Just dirt and leaves and sticks.

"... Well, I'm too worried about it." Kyomu's head snapped up and, after briefly considering a random direction, pointed forwards and began working his way through some brush. "Forest is only so big. C'mon. We'll find our way back."

"Following the guy that took forever to find us," Bakugo snarked as he tailed the other teen. "I'd be better off setting a tree on fire so they can just follow the smoke to us."

"Nah, we got a good three minutes before we become that desperate." He pushed some branches out of the way, though the sight of even more dense brush only made him more concerned. "But, uh... load up an blast or two just in case."

"... I was kidding."

Nervously chuckling, Kyomu ducked under a swinging branch. "Of course. I knew that." He looked backwards and gave Bakugo a wry grin, though it turned into a frown once he looked back forwards.

He needed to find that campsite fast.

"Meat..."

Both teens stopped right in their tracks. The voice they had just heard didn't belong to either of them, nor was it a voice any of the two recognized. They shot each other uncertain looks before turning left and heading towards the sound of the voice.

"Meat... blood... warm flesh..."

"I thought we already got our cheap scare," Kyomu whispered to Bakugo as the two pushed towards the voice. "The hell? Did we take so long they sent the next groups and they're mistaking us for the others?"

"How should I know?" Bakugo quietly snapped at him.

There was more quiet muttering right in front of them, and after pushing some branches to the side, they were able to see just what it was. A man they didn't recognize in a black straightjacket. His back was turned to him, and his head was tilted downwards to look at something laying on the ground.

Both teens went still when they recognized it as a severed human hand.

"Mn... must not, cannot, but... so warm..." Though they could not see his face from this position, there was a copious amount of drool pouring down from his mouth and splashing on the ground. Though the man didn't mind, as he seemed completely transfixed on the hand. "Just a little, won't hurt..."

 _"Something is either very wrong or one of those 1-B guys is taking a joke way too far."_ Silently, both students locked eyes, nodded, and slowly began to step backwards. _"Either way, we're not sticking around to find out."_

 _"EVERYONE!"_ Kyomu winced at the sudden sound, and Bakugo rose a palm to his forehead. It wasn't a sound they had heard with their ears, but with their head. Like a voice other than their own was in their mind.

 _"Wait..."_ Slowly, the black-haired teen's eyes widened. _"Isn't... isn't Mandalay a telepath? Yeah, Midoriya mentioned her Quirk is telepathy. So why is she-?"_

 _"This is an emergency!"_ It certainly must have been urgent, as it sounded like she was practically screaming inside their own minds. The sense of panic alone was enough to get Kyomu to pay attention. _"Villains have infiltrated the campgrounds! We have no indication of how many there are or what their Quirks are, but their objective seems to be capturing Bakugo Katsuki!"_ Upon hearing this, Bakugo clenched his teeth and fists at the same time. _"Due to the severity of the situation, Mr. Aizawa has granted permission to use your Quirks is self-defense! I repeat! You-"_

The telepathic transmission cut out right there. The second voice in their heads had disappeared so abruptly that the two were disoriented and stumbled slightly. Unfortunately, this meant that one of them had stepped on a dead branch and caused a loud snapping sound.

And even more unfortunately, this caused the man man in the straightjacket to quickly turn around towards them.

"Oh, what the..." Kyomu could hardly look at the villain. His entire face was covered in a tight, black-leather hood with the exception of his mouth. And the mouth itself was extremely unsightly, as his lips were being held apart by red straps, exposing all of his teeth. "What are-"

Kyomu didn't have the time to finish before the villain's teeth vibrated, and then rapidly began to extend by whole meters a second. Even more alarming was that the ends of the teeth were flattening, sharpening, and turning metallic.

Bakugo was the first one to react by facing his palms to the side. "Move, move!" he screamed out as explosions blew out from his hands and blew him to the long clearing the villain was standing in just as the metal blades impacting the ground he had been standing on. Kyomu simply moved forwards and dodged to the side as a blade very nearly grazed him.

 _"He can turn his teeth into swords. Gotta be kidding. They're kicking up so much dirt when they hit the ground, too, so they're powerful. How hard are they? What's the range on them?"_ Kyomu skid to a halt at the villains left side, while Bakugo slowed to a halt on the other side. The metal teeth were whipping around wildly in the air in front of the villain as he- somehow with his covered eyes- looked between the two. _"Screw it."_ Kyomu raised his right hand. _"Doesn't matter how hard they are. Void goes through everything, and we just got permission to hurt this guy."_

He snapped his fingers. Black discs briefly appeared between all the extended, metal teeth, and then disappeared once more. The halves of the teeth fell to the ground soon after, and the villain stood completely still for a moment before letting out a guttural howl. Kyomu was forced to jump backwards when the cut teeth re-sharpened and extended even further, with one cutting into the ground he'd just been standing on while the others raised his body up in the air.

"Of course they regenerate," Kyomu breathed as more blades thrust themselves towards him. He quickly opened a portal behind him, leapt through, and appeared out of another one right besides Bakugo. "Breaking them won't do anything," he told him.

An uneasy look plastered itself on Bakugo's face, though his eyes were wide and feral as they rapidly tracked the movements of the blades teeth and the body being held aloft by them. "Then we take that loser out and negate them," he growled. "Draw his teeth away and give me and opening."

It was a plan. Seeing as Kyomu didn't have one of his own, he decided to go along with it and ran past Bakugo and around the villain's bladed perch. The bladed teeth, moving and extending in random, hard angles slowly tracked his as he ran before thrusting down towards him. Right before they managed to hit him, a portal opened up in front of Kyomu and the teeth sunk themselves down into Void.

While Kyomu distracted the villain, Bakugo blasted up towards the villain with a savage yell as he reared one of his smoking hands back to blast the villain head on. Right when more teeth went towards Kyomu, Bakugo pointed his hand right at the villain and blasted him. A look of victory came to the blonde's face, though it was quickly replaced by an angered snarly when the smoke cleared to reveal that even more of his teeth had hardened and extended to shield the villain from the blast. Afterwards, they extended towards Bakugo, who yelled out and blasted himself towards the ground.

The second the teen touched the dirt, Kyomu slid right to his side. More teeth came towards them, though from every angle they tried to skewer the two a black portal opened up to swallow the teeth. They would exit the portals or fall away completely, but regardless they kept stabbing towards them.

"I can keep defending us as long as I have a line of sight on all his teeth, but eventually he's gonna figure that out," Kyomu informed. "So we gotta decide now: we running or fighting?"

Bakugo scowled, his focus entirely on the blades trying and failing to stick them as they went into the black portals that repeatedly appeared to protect them. "You got a preference?" he asked.

"Mandalay implied there's multiple villains. Not only that..." Kyomu's eyes flicked to the hand on the ground, and then back to the villain. "This guy already dismembered someone. He's dangerous," he said. "I don't wanna leave him only to have one of our classmates run into him and get killed. Hell, he probably already killed somebody if the hand says anything." He shook his head. "No. We're taking him out right here and now."

It was a rational explanation for his reasoning. In truth, Kyomu was feeling unwavering rage every single time he caught that hand sitting in the corner of his vision. He couldn't tell whose it was, everybody in 1-A and 1-B had such similar complexions with the exception of a few. But whoever's it was, it meant that the next time he saw one of his friends, they'd be missing a hand. Forever mutilated because of a villain.

So no. He wasn't running. He was going to make sure this villain was never going to hurt anyone again. And lucky for him Bakugo was here, because otherwise he would have dumped his body into Void already.

"You got any plans?" Bakugo asked in a hurried tone. "We ain't got all day here!"

Kyomu hummed in agreement. "You remember that trick you pulled on me at the Sports Festival?" As he said this, small, black portals appeared in the air all around the villain being held in the air by his teeth. At the same time, portals appeared in two orderly rows right in front of Bakugo. "Those portals in front of you are all connected to the ones next to him. Go wild."

For only the briefest of moments did confusion lock itself on Bakugo face before it faded and an absolutely savage smirk spread across his face. "Oh, really?" Small explosions were already popping off in his palms in preparation as he held his hands up to the portals in front of him. "Hey, which ones are connected to which?"

"Does it matter? Blast 'em all at the same time. Treat it like a kid going crazy on a set of drums."

Those were the only words on encouragement Bakugo needed. Right after saying so, the space all around the two briefly flashed white as Bakugo blasted two gargantuan explosions right into the portals. All the heat and light was gone the second they passed over, but the concussive force went right through. The villain's body was wracked left and right as continuous pressure assaulted him at all sides, jarring his body so much that the base of all his bladed teeth began to crack and snap away. Some of his limbs even distended as bones broke, and it was only when Bakugo ceased blasting did the villain's body fall to the ground.

The two students held their breath as they stared at the motionless body. They saw the rise and fall of his chest to indicate breathing and life, but otherwise he remained completely still on the ground. After watching for a while, Kyomu dismissed the Void portals and the two cautiously stood up.

"He down?" Kyomu asked.

"Yeah... yeah, looks like it," Bakugo said.

"Great." The Void user patted Bakugo on the shoulder, who immediately shrugged him off and sent him a harsh glare. "Great teamwork there, buddy." His eyes hardened, and he rose his hand and blackness wrapped around his fingers. "Gimme a few seconds with him and then we can go find the others."

After saying this, Kyomu quickly walked towards the villains fallen form and crouched down in front of his face. Bakugo stared on in confusion, wondering what it was the other teen was doing, but then stepped back in shock when he saw Kyomu reaching into his mouth. "Hey, what the hell are you doing!?" he yelled at him.

"Ripping this bastard's teeth out." This answer was said in a completely calm tone, though the speed at which Kyomu grabbed a handful of the villain's teeth and used Void to cut through the gums and root to pull them completely out was almost savage. A small amount of blood splattered on his face as he tossed the handful of the teeth to the side, only for him to reach back in and grab some more teeth.

"H-hey..." Unsure, Bakugo approached Kyomu and reached towards his shoulder. "Hey, Void!" Kyomu ignored Bakugo's words and continued to tear more teeth out of the villain's mouth. "Shinka, stop it!" he finally yelled as he roughly grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "I get you're pissed! I am, too, but you don't see me mutilating... look, there's human rights-"

"This thing doesn't have rights," Kyomu hissed as he shook Bakugo's hand off. The blonde gave him a bewildered look, and then backed away completely at the harsh glare he saw from Kyomu's blue eyes. "He gave up having rights when he became a villain." He turned back to the passed out villain and continued tearing. "He's never using this power again. Not when he used it to hurt one of our friends." The motion his hand made became more frantic and sped-up. His eyes grew to near-manic sizes. "Maybe I should take a limb or two while I'm at it and say he lost it in the fighting. He's not gonna say anything. You heard him; he's a raving lunatic. Nobody cares what happens to a madman like this." He tore the last tooth out. "Hell, maybe I should just kill him now and save everyone the trouble!" he growled as he held his hand up, Void wrapped all around his hand.

There was a flash of light, and a hand found itself wrapping around his wrist to stop him. Kyomu exhaled slowly, and then looked up at the hand gripping him. His eyes traced the arm to the owner who was staring at him with a wide pair of red eyes. They weren't Bakugo's, though, as he was standing too far now to be within grabbing distance. And Bakugo didn't have white hair.

"Hey." Hikari looked down at his brother, eyes slowly turning downcast at they looked from Kyomu to the villain, and then back to Kyomu. "Cut it out. You're not a killer, remember?"

* * *

There hadn't really been a plan for finding Bakugo other than to just keep looking around and taking out anybody along the way until they found him. Considering he had one of the loudest Quirks of the bunch, it shouldn't have been that hard. So when Hikari had heard all the explosions, he'd simply followed them.

Apparently it was Moonfish, probably the most crazy one out of all of them, that had found them. And of course they had dispatched him rather quickly. So quickly, in fact, that they didn't even see the poisonous cloud of gas pouring out of the woods about fifty meters behind them.

 _"Must be Mustard's work,"_ Hikari had thought, though his focus was more on the fact that his brother was tearing out Moonfish's teeth by the handful. A fact that he wasn't overly alarmed over, but the second he raised his hand in what looked like a killing blow was when he chose to act.

Thinking back on it after he grabbed the hand, Hikari realized that perhaps he should have knocked Bakugo out before doing this. Speed of Light made him fast enough; he surely would have had enough time to have chopped him in the back of the neck or restrain him in hardlight or something while stopping Kyomu at the same time. But he had been too focused on that hand wreathed in Void coming down on Moonfish to do anything.

So that's what he did. He sped right behind him, grabbed his hand, and told him to stop.

"Hey. Cut it out. You're not a killer, remember?"

There had been a look of confusion that spread across Kyomu's face. It slowly turned into one of realization as he looked past Hikari and to Bakugo, and then a grimace as he ripped his hand out from Hikari's grasp. And then he quickly had to dive out of the way when a white sword of light appeared over him and stabbed down at the ground he'd been crouching at.

He still had a job to do, after all.

"Well, well." Kyomu had rolled right between Hikari and Bakugo, and had slowly stood up while dusting his clothes off. "Shoulda known it was you guys again. Why can I never get a normal field trip?"

"My deepest apologies, brother," Hikari drawled out as he picked up the white sword. "It seems that my work keeps finding itself in your way. I do hope you can forgive my boss. He's the one that plans all my schedules."

The small banter had caused some chuckling to be made between the two brothers. It soon faded, however, and following this Kyomu turned towards Bakugo.

"Go," he commanded. "Get out of here. He's mine."

"What?" It seemed that the order offended Bakugo, if the way his eyebrows twitched said anything. He shook his head and pointed towards Hikari, who had rested the short sword on his shoulder. "No way in hell am I leaving you with him! Not after last time! We-!"

"Right now I have an advantage," Kyomu reminded. His tone had gone neutral and his stare blank as he looked in Bakugo's direction. "It's night. These are bad conditions for him to fight in. If you fight him, he's just gonna draw power out of the light of your explosions." He turned back to Hikari. "Besides, they're after you for some reason. So go find our classmates and help them so they can keep you safe. I'll stall him here. I'm counting on you, alright?"

It was obvious that Bakugo wanted to argue this. He even opened his mouth to continue, but his eyes kept flicking between the two brothers before his head dipped down in thought. He cursed under his breath, and then held his palms to the ground. "Don't you dare screw up and get killed."

Those were the only parting words he chose to say before blasting off in the opposite direction of the poison gas. Whether he just chose that way or he'd just now noticed it was a mystery, though at the moment that was the least of Hikari's worries. The forefront of his thoughts were on the twin in front of him.

Kyomu shifted on his feet, looked briefly in the direction Bakugo flew off in, scoffed, and then looked back at Hikari. "What do those idiots want with him, anyways?" he asked. "Out of all the 1-A and 1-B students, you guys pick literally the most volatile one? Seriously?"

"Ah, Shigaraki thinks he'll be easy to convert since he's so angry." Hikari raised a hapless shrug. "He got all of that out of his photo from the Sports Festival."

Confusion blossomed on Kyomu's face, followed by disbelief. "For real? You guys are raiding us over something as banal as _that_?"

"... Shigaraki's kinda new at this thing, so I don't think he's much good at it yet."

"Yeah, obviously." An exasperated sigh left Kyomu as he rubbed a tired hand over his face. "You know, you actually had me doubting that maybe, just maybe I was doing the wrong thing back at that mall, but then you guys pull this stupid stunt and make me realize natural selection'll kill you all before I do." He grimaced and pointed at Moonfish's sleeping body. "And that guy right there isn't giving me any doubts."

"Who, Moonfish?" Come to think of it, Moonfish was probably one of the worst kinds of villains Hikari could have encountered out of all of them. He was living proof that the stereotype Kyomu had constructed about villains was true, and the fact he spent all his time mumbling about meat didn't really help matters all that much.

Actually a good portion of the League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad would have fit his stereotype considering that Hikari was certain at least three of them were certifiably insane, Moonfish being the most prominent among them.

"If that's his name, then yeah," Kyomu affirmed.

"Hm. You ripped his teeth out and ruined his Quirk," Hikari noted. "That wasn't very nice of you. Guy was already on death row before he broke outta prison and we picked him up. He's got enough on his mind."

Kyomu hummed with interest. "Death row, huh? That's finally picking back up? Thought they didn't do that anymore, but I guess it's been a few years since I checked. So what he do? Murder a family and eat their kids or something?"

"Don't know. Probably, though, if I'm being honest. Considering all he ever talks about is meat." They paused, and then bother shuddered at the thought. "Anyways," Hikari continued, "don't mean to bring the mood down, but I gotta go kidnap Bakugo. Nothing personal against you."

"Of course. But you're not taking him."

Red and blue eyes both narrowed considerably at the person they were staring at. Hikari kicked backwards and sent Moonfish's body sailing back a fair distance, and afterwards the two began to slowly circle one another. Dark wisps flowed around Kyomu's body as Hikari spun the white sword in his hand.

Despite the intense stares being given off, both brothers had playful smirks on their lips.

"So you think just because it's night you got a chance?" Hikari mused. "Still sore about last time?"

"Mm, well, that's the great thing about Void. I don't have to make it. I just open portals to it. You, though... well, there's not much light right now." Kyomu looked up. "And look at that. A cloud just passed over the moon."

"Ah, who needs power when you got speed?" Hikari spun the sword one more time and pointed it at Kyomu. "Believe it or not, Speed of Light is one of my less light-consuming abilities. Maybe I'll just zip around you and use this sword to take you out before making it to Bakugo."

"Solid plan," Kyomu admitted. His grin widened as he held his index up in the air and shook it rapidly, causing Hikari to tilt his head. Then, he quickly opened his hand. A long, black portal appeared above his palm, and then molded itself into an identical shape to Hikari's light sword. He grabbed it and, after experimentally swinging it a few times, reversed his grip and held it behind him. "But I can do that, too."

Hikari frowned. "... That's not a sword, though. It's just a portal-shaped sword."

"Whatever, still counts if it works."

The white-haired teen snorted in amusement. "Whatever, man. Just because you copied my sword trick doesn't mean you can outpace me."

"Well, then let's test that," Kyomu offered. He flipped the black sword into a reverse grip and grinned. "Let's just see... which one is faster. Your Speed of Light, or my Dark Drift."

Hikari's brows had furrowed in confusion, though the eyes themselves quickly widened when he saw that Kyomu's body disappeared.

 _"What?"_ His red irises shrunk as he focused, and he managed to see it. A black shadow in Kyomu's visage, barely visible and quickly disappeared. There were more and more shadows in front of that one, like a super-imposed image of Kyomu moving towards Hikari before quickly disappeared. _"What did he- agh!"_

A shooting pain went through his left shoulder, and he was forced to hunch down and look towards the wound. He gasped out loud when he saw the blade of a black sword going through his shoulder, with Kyomu standing right behind him.

"You see, time doesn't pass in Void if I seal myself in there completely. I can't use it to teleport since I need two portals opened, and I can only exit in the same place if I go in entirely," Kyomu calmly explained. He then pulled the sword out from Hikari's shoulder, who briefly glowed white and leaped backwards to face his brother. "If I erase the space between me and my intended destination," he continued, "by layering thousands of thin sheets of Void portals and move through them... well, then that's not teleporting at all. That's just moving really fast."

"Sounds like shoddy logic," Hikari grunted as he rolled his wounded, bleeding shoulder and straightened up. As he stood tall, the blood flow slowed to a stop, and the wound already began to darken and scab over.

"Oh, whatever." Both brothers pointed their respective swords at one another. "You can't talk with Speed of Light."

"Yeah... guess not."

In a flash of light, four more swords appeared in the air next to Hikari, two at each side and all pointed at Kyomu. The two twins began to walk and circle another once again, with Kyomu eyeing the sword at his brother's side. He snapped, and four black swords appeared next to him in identical positions.

 _"Copycat."_ Hikari grimaced, whereas Kyomu sent him a teasing smirk. _"I know for a fact you have your own moves. Quit stealing mine."_

He flicked his fingers and sent the four swords flying towards Kyomu, who repeated the gesture and sent forwards his own swords. The eight swords met point for point, with the black swords cutting straight through the white ones and destroying them. The black ones, meanwhile, did not lose any momentum as they soared right towards Hikari.

Letting out an annoyed grunt, Hikari hopped backwards as the black swords sunk into the ground. He looked back up at Kyomu, who only continued smirking at him.

"Black beats white," he called.

"Tch. Since when?" Light gathered around Hikari's body, and he zipped forwards in a burst of speed while trailing white light behind him. When he approached Kyomu, who was tracking him with his eyes, he'd raised his sword and brought it down on him. Kyomu, in response, met his sword with his own by swiping his black sword upwards with one hand.

Once again, the black sword went entirely through the white one, and even managed to graze Hikari's arm before he wordlessly leapt back once more.

 _"Right,"_ he thought. In small bursts of speed he moved around Hikari, blasting beams of light at him. In response, black spheres had appeared around him and shot towards the beam, meeting them halfway and the beam being entirely engulfed by the black balls. _"His weapons and projectiles are all just portals to Void. Matter, energy, light, doesn't matter what. Anything that touches the black gets sent to Void. Which means it goes through everything!"_ He twisted his body to the side and narrowly dodged a black ball from hitting him. _"There's no defense against that!"_

Hikari kept his eyes entirely trained on Kyomu's form the entire time he thought, and hesitated when his body was replaced by dark afterimages moving forwards in a line towards him. He spun around and just managed to duck under the black blade of his sword that he swung at him.

"I'm getting a good feeling," Kyomu said as he raised his hand up. "Hey, you saw me at the Sports Festival. You remember this one?"

He snapped. A circle of Void appeared right above them, and then rapidly expanded and curved downwards all around them. Hikari had bent his legs to try and move, but by the time he'd been fully prepared to make the motion the dome of Void had successfully closed around them completely. And with that, came the complete absence of all exterior light and sound.

 _"Oh... that's not good."_ An uneasy hum left Hikari as a small ball of light formed on the tip of his finger to illuminate the pitch blackness he'd found himself in. _"I was barely getting any light out there, but even that was better than the_ nothing _I'm getting in here. I can't break the dome, either; it's all Void. So what am I- seriously!?"_

The teen stumbled backwards when a dark shape blitzed past him and left a shallow red gash along his chest. He held a hand up to the wound, but then stumbled again when the same shape whizzed past him again and again, inflicting more and more cuts on his body.

"What's the matter?" Kyomu's disembodied voice sounded from somewhere ahead of Hikari. He fired a laser from his palm, though it hit nothing but the black wall behind it. "Can't see me? Me neither, but I don't have to worry about bumping into the walls that'll eat me alive." The voice came from behind him this time, though like last time, he hit nothing but wall. "It's cool that there's literally nothing stopping me from doing this. I mean if I really wanted to I could just leave you in here until the air runs out and you asphyxiate."

 _Tink!_

"... Eh?" This confused noise had come from Kyomu, who had stopped in his slashing to stare in a random direction in the darkness upon hearing the strange noise. "What-?"

He was cut off when the entirety of the inside of the dark dome was lit up with bright, white light. It was so stunning that Kyomu had cried out and held out his hands to shield his eyes. This caused a lapse in his concentration, causing the dome he'd set up to collapse entirely and reveal the dark forest all around them. He slowly lowered his hands, and saw that light was coalescing around Hikari's left hand while his right hand was tossing a small, pipe-like object up and down.

"Shigaraki decided to hook us up with villain costumes and gear," Hikari explained. "I didn't opt for a costume, but I took the flash grenades for situations like this."

After saying this, the white-haired teen grinned and threw the second flash grenade right in the air. Kyomu immediately closed his eyes and held his hands out, but then froze when he did not hear the grenade pop off. He slowly opened his eyes, only for them to snap wide open when he saw the grenade shimmer and the visage of the flash grenade to slowly turn into a normal rock. At the same time, a white blade cut past his forearms, causing him to jump back.

Kyomu groaned out loud when he couldn't see his brother.

"Hardlight's such a great thing, man." This sentence was said by Hikari right as the white blade when through Kyomu's shoulder from his back- in the same spot he himself had stabbed Hikari. "Especially since I can bend it to look like other things. Also I got you in the back again."

The other brother's response was to swing his arm behind him to try and get him with the black sword. He only made it halfway, however, as an invisible black of hardlight had blocked his forearm as it approached Hikari. After feeling this, a wave of Void erased the white sword going through him as he turned around, only to see Hikari slowly disappear. He frowned, and eight Void portals spawned around him and bent into the shape of swords before they rapidly began to spin around him. He heard a hiss of pain and saw a spurt of blood appear midair as the invisibility wore off of Hikari, and revealed the Light user stepping backwards while holding his bleeding forearm. The swords then stopped spinning before shooting outwards in the direction they were pointed. Hikari managed to dive out of the way of the swords, though one had grazed him in his side.

Both twins slowly locked eyes with each other, and then they focused on their own bodies and the wounds on their bodies that had long since stopped bleeding. They then rose their eyes to meet each others' once more, and slowly they both began to grin.

After that, they both _moved_.

The movement traits of their abilities were pushed to the limits, and they both shot right at each other, collided, and were pushed away before both streaked deeper into the forest. Both a bright white blur and a black blur whirled and cut through the air and trees at speeds almost incomprehensible to human eyes as they moved and collided over and over. The two blurs rapidly sped up as their coverage of the entire forest exponentially began to expand. From the forest paths to the denser parts, to the mountain and burning section of trees being consumed by blue flames, and even past the campsite and cabins at one point, the two blurs moved and fought everywhere without paying heed to anything in their way.

To Hikari and, unknown to him, Kyomu, it was a euphoric experience. It was the first time the two had truly interacted as equals ever since the time right before Hikari had been sent to prison. Not like when Hikari had completely defeated Kyomu at the USJ. Not even when the two had their brief talks whenever they met up afterwards. The same feeling they had always felt when they'd played together as children, the feeling the two twins had been longing for all this time, was felt between the two during their bloody fight as their bodied zipped all around the entire forest in inhuman speeds.

If one were to pay attention, they would even be able to hear the two brothers softly laughing as the black and white blurs lashed against each other again and again.

Alas, it came to an end as the white blur began to flicker before winking out entirely, causing Hikari to bounce against the ground and slide in a straight line before coming to a halt. He rolled to his knees as quickly as possible, panting heavily as he tried to catch his breath. His entire body was riddled with shallow cuts and gashes, as his sweat-slicked hair was sticking to his face in random places, but his eyes were wide open and his mouth was twisted in a wild expression.

But however much he wanted to continue, he just couldn't.

 _"I had more flash grenades, but Kyomu nicked them and ruined them all. I'm out. I can't keep going."_ He looked to his left, his right, and then did a double take and looked back to his right. _"What the... what're they doing there?"_

The large, swirling black vortex of Kurogiri was not something he could mistake for anything else. Kurogiri was meant to be their exit strategy for when they accomplished their objective or needed to escape, so when he saw Toga, Dabi, and the magician-like villain they'd recruited in front of Kurogiri, he grew confused. And then he looked ahead of them, and he saw some of the UA students facing them off. The six-armed student with the green-haired one strapped to his back, the bi-colored haired one, and the bald one. He was confused, but regardless Hikari saw a way out, so he mustered the last of his power and dashed right besides Dabi.

Dabi started in surprise when he saw the teen dressed in red-splattered clothing appear in front of him, but stilled when he recognized the face. "Hey, guys," Hikari greeted with a tired grunt as he regarded each of them before facing the UA students in front of him. "So what's the deal? We're bugging out?"

"We're not just yet," Dabi said. "We don't have the kid."

"Not to worry, my good man!" The villains' heads turned to the most well-dressed villain among them. Mr. Compress, one of the new recruits, who was looking at them with his masked face. In his left hand was a small, turquoise marble pinched between his fingers. "I have the target in tow right here. Let us abscond with him post haste before-"

 _Snap!_

There was no way anybody could have reacted quick enough, and even if they did have the reflexes to see it, there still wouldn't have been anything they could have done. The instant that snap was made, a black disc appeared right over the middle of Mr. Compress's forearm, the one that held the marble. It left as soon as it came, leaving a clean cut that went all the way through the arm. Blood spurted out of the wound, and the arm dropped away from the rest of the man's body. And as the marble fell, a black portal opened right next to it, and a hand shot out, grabbed it, and threw it right towards the darkly-dressed teen now standing right next to the other UA students who were looking at him in shock.

"You're not taking anybody," Kyomu intoned as he caught the marble with his free hand. "And that was for whoever's hand you people cut off, you sick freaks."

Hikari heard Mr. Compress bite back a strangled scream as he held his bleeding stump. Dabi glanced at him and nodded to the portal, and following this the magician picked up his severed limb and dived through the portal. Afterwards, Dabi's eyes locked onto Kyomu, while Toga looked back and forth between the fire user and Void user with uncertainty in her eyes while Hikari stared dead ahead.

"Okay. We're not leaving without him," Dabi said as blue flames began to spread around his fingers. "Let's-"

"We're getting out," Hikari interrupted. "Right now. We lost."

The blue flames flickered, and Dabi snapped his head to the other villain. "Not happening. We have orders, and-"

"And I'm out of light, and he can dismember you just by looking at you."

"He's just some hero schoolboy. He's not crazy enough to-"

"He _just did_ , Dabi." He sent the darker-dressed villain a harsh glare, and Dabi seemed to take his words to heart as he looked down at the blood stain on the ground and then back to Hikari. "We're already down with Moonfish. I don't even know the status of everyone else. For all I know it's just us four that's making it out. I'm the squad leader, and I'm telling you right now we're cutting our losses and leaving. The mission's done for."

A sharp whistle stole their attention. "Take my brother's advice and take the L, Scars," Kyomu called to them as he tossed the marble up and down. "I can tell you right now it won't end well for you if you try your luck on me."

The flames grew in intensity, but then flicked completely out with a scoff from Dabi. "You're explaining this to Shigaraki," he grumbled as he grabbed Toga and pulled her through the portal.

"Yeah," Hikari mumbled as he watched them go. "Of course." They went through, leaving Kyomu alone in front of Kurogiri's portal. He looked into the darkness of that portal, and then at the group of students his age and at his brother.

Kyomu, for his part, was cheekily grinning at him. "I'm counting this as my win," he said. "Score's even now, right?"

"... Sure." He turned his back to the other teens as a small smile spread across his lips. "Mr. Compress's Quirk compresses things into those marbles. If you wanna free Bakugo, just break it. He'll be fine." He started to walk through the portal. "Call it a... consolation prize. For winning this one. Good seeing you again, Kyomu."

And with that, he fully walked into Kurogiri, and the portal closed behind him.

* * *

 _"So that's that. He's gone. For now, at least."_

A weary sigh escaped Kyomu as he collapsed in a sitting position and looked down at himself. He was riddled with as many cuts and bruises as his brother had been, and he was fairly certain his clothes weren't supposed to be smoking, but otherwise it was all wounds that would heal over in practically no time.

The important thing was that he managed to save his friend. Everybody else, he had no clue, but he saved one, which was one more than what he was expecting. Most of his attention had been engrossed on the fight with Hikari. And what a fight it had been- enough for him to have actually had fun with it. Fun he hadn't had with his brother in years.

But that was over with for now, and right now he had priorities to focus on.

"Any single one of you rag on me about how I cut that guy's arm off, I'll punch you. I ain't in the mood to argue." With a huff, he threw the blue marble at the ground. It shattered, and in a puff of smoke the small fragments were replaced by the full body of Bakugo, whose eyes were wide and looking around in astonishment. "Bakugo, quick, was there any cool stuff in marble world?"

"What the... agh!" His teeth and fists clenched as realization flashed across his face. "That damn villain's Quirk...!" His eyes shot up to Kyomu. "You saved me?"

"Sure, why not?" Looking away from Bakugo's scathing glare, Kyomu looked up to Shoji, and the bleeding, half-formed hand on one of his tentacle arms. "Shoji, was that your hand in the forest?" he asked. "I saw a hand back there."

The masked student nodded. "Tokoyami's Quirk went a bit out control thanks to the villains, and he got me. The hand will grow back, though. Perks of the Quirk."

"Oh." So nothing of value had been lost. And, albeit they had done it by proxy, the villains's hadn't dismembered him, but Tokoyami. Accidentally. Which meant that his own dismemberment of a villain's hand suddenly seemed much less justified.

Ah, well. He didn't really care.

"How about you, Midoriya?" He couldn't tear his eyes away from the teen strapped to the taller teen's back. Nor the way he looked like his bones had been put through a meat grinder. "You, uh... you don't look so hot."

"Ran into a villain," he grunted through grit teeth. "Had to protect Kota. Broke some bones."

"Of course you did," Kyomu said with a breathy sigh. "Everybody else good?" There were various nods and other confirmations and all around. "Okay, then." With a groan, he picked himself up to stand on his feet. "In that case, let's go. Looks like the villains retreated, so... I dunno, should probably go find the teachers, round up any wounded or villains that got knocked out, that kind of thing."

They were all in agreement, and began making their way back to the campsite. Soon enough other scattered students had gathered around, and in the distant mountains roads the sound of sirens were heard. When all was said and done everybody had come out of the conflict relatively fine, and the students and heroes present had even managed to capture a few of the villains that had lead the assault: the sword-toothed one Kyomu and Bakugo had incapacitated, the one Midoriya mentioned, and a third one some students from 1-B had taken care of.

And when it had all calmed down, Kyomu idly wondered if he'd ever get a normal field trip.


	26. Chapter 26

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Arc Final- Silver is forever**

 **Episode 26- The Vengeful Bomber**

* * *

The week after the failed capture of Bakugo had not been kind for the League of Villains.

Where to even begin?

Shigaraki had not at all been pleased with their failure. That was a given. All For One through his TV had nothing to say to them, and all he had said to Shigaraki was words of encouragement about growing from failure. To Hikari he made it sound like he'd almost expected the operation to fail, but if Shigaraki caught on or not, he didn't show it. The man practically revered every single word that came out of that TV.

They'd taken some losses in the failed mission, too. Moonfish was a given, and even if the cops hadn't found him, Kyomu had ruined his Quirk forever by tearing all of his teeth out, roots and all. So effectively useless. Mustard and Muscular had been taken, too, having been defeated by other students. So their already small numbers were even smaller now. Not ideal. The magician whose arm Kyomu had cut off was fine, at least. Down an arm, but still able. His biggest complaint was that it was harder to pull off sleight of hand with only one hand, but it was a challenge he openly welcomed. So there was that.

But that all paled in comparison to the fact that their HQ, the bar, had been raided. By heroes. About a day after the failed mission. Nobody in the group even know how they found them; maybe a neighbor reported something suspicious going on in the bar or one of them had a tail that followed them. They would have all been captured if it weren't for the time intervention of All For One, whose Quirk was... interesting, if not gross. He seemed to have a warping power, like Kurogiri, only his was more direct and transported them all to his own personal base of operations, which had been a big tower a city over. It'd been the first time Hikari had ever seen the man up close, and he'd had to do a double take when he saw him. Neck down he seemed like a normal enough man. Wore a business suit of all things. Neck up his face was a featureless mass of scarred, blank flesh with the exception of a mouth connected to life support tubes. Though, Hikari only got a glance- they were all ushered out from the room quickly afterwards by a doctor-looking person so All For One and Shigaraki could talk in private.

During that whole ordeal Hikari couldn't help but feel a bit of familiarity with that doctor.

Eventually, Shigaraki had reconnected with them to tell them the situation. Bar was compromised and could never be set foot in again. A warehouse All For One had been using to produce Nomu and had been holding one of those cat heroes back at the camp for reasons only known to All For One had also been raided, so production of those were going to be going slowly for the time being. The usual trio, Hikari, Kurogiri, and Shigaraki, relocated to an apartment building in the same city as All For One's tower, most likely, as Hikari suspected, so that the older villain could keep a closer eye on his disciple. Everybody else went back to their own homes to lay low from the law and await orders from Shigaraki.

That had been the extent of those events. A week passed with them keeping their heads down. Meet-ups were occasionally scheduled. Shigaraki assured them he had plans in the work, but that remained to be seen. For now the members were to look around and scout for new members to swell their numbers once more.

But believe it or not they, being Hikari, Kurogiri, and Shigaraki, were all still humans, so they needed to eat. Which meant that they had a rotating schedule to choose who would go out to get food each week, as well as any other items anybody requested. Which meant that Shigaraki and Hikari kept switching, as Kurogiri was too conspicuous with his appearance.

This week was Hikari's turn.

 _"You'd think they'd get some kind of delivery system up and running so we wouldn't be taking a big risk every time we go out for food,"_ Hikari thought to himself as he walked down a mostly empty sidewalk. It was the afternoon on a weekday, so not too many people. Unfortunately, "not too many people" still left dozens along every single corner, and even more driving by in cars. Not a very good environment for a teen with a wanted face to be walking in, and carrying bags of groceries wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous thing. _"Feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack every time I step outside ever since the bar got raided. For all I know there's a battalion of heroes in the next building over just watching me. Planning."_ He shook his head. _"Nah, Hikari, you're being paranoid. Probably._

 _"What am I even doing anymore?"_ He found his feet stopping in front of a store window and him dropping the bags. He couldn't help but turn to the window just to see his own reflection. A pale, haggard teen stared right back at him. _"It feels like every step forwards is two steps back with Shigaraki. Every single big move of his has been a failure. He either bounces back on his own or All For One bails him out, and he tries again only to fail even harder next time. Yeah, sure. He's 'learning' and he's 'new at the whole thing', but that excuse can only go so far when he barely have any results. And what's his plan now? Recruit more members to gain more strength and make another attack. Like that's worked the last two times he tried. Three if I count Stain."_ He sighed out loud and felt his forehead thunk on the window. _"Why am I even here? Kill All Might? Wasn't that the goal I set for myself so long ago? The goal I let Shigaraki sweet talk me into? Change society for the better and all that so my situation never happens again? Pfft, yeah. Right. We're no closer to that goal than when we started all the way back when I was recruited right before USJ. Am I wasting my time?"_

A question that had been plaguing him since the camp attack. He honestly couldn't say if he was or not. At least his brother was doing something with his life, in his own... special way. He didn't know if he was still running around dishing out his own special brand of vigilantism, but ignoring that, he was on the fast track to getting a hero license and making an actual life. Meanwhile he was a wanted criminal squatting with a bunch of psychopaths doing... who knew what at this point. And Hikari was finding that he had to remind himself of his original goal more and more each day.

Oh, of course he'd voiced his concerns to Shigaraki. Of course destroying All Might and the hero society was still in the plan. But Hikari found himself questioning if Shigaraki, with his lack of any progress, could pull something like that off. Then there was All For One, who Hikari barely knew anything about. He only seemed interested in teaching Shigaraki how to be a real villain. Seeing as he didn't even know who the man was, he was starting to become skeptical of those credentials. But he had that big building and the Nomus, so that had to count for something.

So what was Hikari to do? Cut his losses and just leave? That option didn't seem very viable, as he had nowhere to go and didn't even know if Shigaraki would _let_ him leave. He knew too much, after all. Go to the heroes? Yeah, right. He wasn't looking for a one-way trip back to prison. Go kill All Might by himself? Not likely; he was confident in his skills and powers, but not _that_ confident. Would be a different story if his power was as lethal as Kyomu's, but it wasn't. Keep putting his faith into Shigaraki and hope he would pull off a win eventually? Honestly, staying the course was probably his only feasible option given the situation.

 _"Man. What a mess I'm in."_

"Shinka...?"

Hikari's head snapped right off the window when he heard that. A male voice he didn't recognize saying his name. A passing cop or hero? Someone that had been tailing him? All of these were worrying, really, and causing Hikari's heart rate to skyrocket.

"Um... no?" He slowly began to turn around to address the man who had said his name. At the same time, he held his right hand behind his back and began channeling light in his fingers. "I'm sorry, sir, but I think you have me confused with somebody else? Shinka? Who's... huh?"

He fully turned to the person who said his name. He was standing right behind him, and was staring right at him. And he was, without a doubt, the most innocuous man Hikari could imagine. A standard, run-of-the-mill Japanese business man, with a cheap suit, clean haircut, and everything. Wasn't even that fit, now that Hikari looked at him. The only thing that was off was the fact his eyes were glowing a deep teal, but even that was probably just a Quirk.

"Hi...?" The white-hair teen arched a brow, and waved a hand in front of the man's face. He didn't show any sign of reacting at all, and kept his glowing eyes transfixed right on Hikari's face. "Are you okay, sir? Sir?"

"Shinka..." The man's features tightened, and his teal irises began to glow brighter. "Shinka...!"

"That... may or may not be my name depending on who you are," the teen said. _"What's this guy's deal? Is he just some random guy that wandered past me and recognized my face? And why are his eyes glowing brighter and brighter?"_ He felt the light in his fingers harden into a solid shape, and readied the sword behind his back. _"Is he... gonna attack? This random civilian?"_

By this point, the man's eyes were glowing a blinding teal, and Hikari was too conflicted at what he was watching to do anything. It was only when the man roared "SHINKA!" at the top of his lungs did he decide to try and lunge away from him.

But by that point the man had already exploded.

* * *

"Shinka? Err, Shinka?"

"Huh- wha-?" Kyomu's eyes fluttered open as he picked his head up. He turned his head to the left, but when his cheek met glass he remembered precisely where he was: right next to the windows in Class 1-A's classroom. Specifically, leaning on the wall where the windows were and then falling asleep on them. He'd only awakened when somebody had shaken him awake, and when he looked at the other side he saw Asui shaking his shoulder.

How long had he been out? Couldn't have been that long since the teacher wasn't back yet. So why did his classmate look so concerned?

"Ah, man. Tsu. Hey." Letting out a yawn, the teen shifted shoulders and the wall and crossed his arms as he looked down at the girl. "What's up?" he asked.

"Nothing. Are you alright, Shinka?"

He blinked. "I'm... pretty sure?" he answered. The uncertainty in his voice said enough for his confusion. "Why, do I look unwell?"

Asui nodded, and then placed her finger on her chin. "Ever since we've come back from the training camp you've been kind of listing off in class," she said with a croak. "It's not like you to be tired all the time. I'm just making sure you're not sick or something."

Ah. Right. Of course she would notice something like that. Among most of the 1-A students she was unusually observative. Of course she'd notice something like him being tired more often. He was actually surprised more of his peers didn't keep a concerned eye on him, considering the events of that camp attack. But he supposed that the week between then and now did something to help them adjust and cope.

"Nah, I'm not sick." He shook his head. "I'm just busy at night, you know? I... used to have this hobby I did at night, but I've been kind of... putting it off. As in I haven't really done it since the whole camp thing. A bit before that, really. Been taking a break from that. Thinking." He cleared his throat. "Nowadays I'm just kind of helping around at the orphanage. Lady who runs it, Mizo, she's kinda getting up there in age, and I'm one of the most able-bodied people in that place. I'm always needing to fix something or other there."

It wasn't even a lie. Killing villains, ever since his conversation with Hikari shortly before their trip to the camp, had, in a word, stayed his hand and caused him to think. Then the actual attack happened, and he found that the doubt that had been building in him and that his brother fanned was extinguished. Camp was cancelled, some went to the hospital, and everyone else went home for the rest of the break. For Kyomu, that meant continuing his nightly prowl. Or it would have been if it weren't for the fact that pesky doubt began to resurface shortly after.

Eventually, those doubts increased. He found himself looking online for tangible statistics. Number of robberies per areas in Japan on monthly time scales, hero villain fights, robberies, ect. Numbers were as low as always. Numbers were always low since there were so many heroes around.

But that was just it. Always low. It didn't help any of the doubts that had been stirring in him for so long, so he'd simply stopped. Stopped going out at night, stopped killing villains. Time went by. He didn't notice any difference at all, and by this point he was really starting to question whether or not all he'd been doing for so long was actually having tangible results. Stain's words and Hikari's advice was weighing heavily in him at this point. A week of no results wasn't much, but years of taking action with no tangible results was damning.

So yes. He'd been taking a break up to this point since then. And he was finding himself questioning if he should even go back to doing it or not, and every single day he was leaning more and more into the "no" area. Unfortunately, at the same time Mizo had found out that Kyomu suddenly had all this free time on his hands. So he got roped into about a million chores all revolving around maintaining the orphanage.

"You still live at an orphanage?" Kyomu's head turned to the side at the new voice, and he saw Midoriya step up besides Asui. "Did... nobody ever adopt you?" he asked.

"Apparently not, despite my sunny disposition," Kyomu dryly remarked. "Real surprising, too, since a lot of couples aren't capable of conception because of issues with their anatomy that more of the freaky Mutation-type Quirks give them. Guess I'm just way too old." He shrugged. "It's whatever."

Midoriya nodded and gave him a sympathetic look. "I suppose so," he agreed, "but won't you have to leave at a certain age? You can't live there forever."

"True. But UA's setting up that whole dorm thing," Kyomu reminded. "My current plan is to just bunk down with the rest of you all once they get them up and running. By the time we graduate I'll already be a legal adult, so I'll just be able to get my own place. Might take out a loan for an apartment or something. I'll deal with it in a couple years." He shrugged. "'Til then I'm under the thumb of a tyrannical old lady."

Evidently, the fact that their class had been attacked by villains multiple times was not only shaking the people's faith in the school's ability to protect them, but getting the school to begin worrying about them strangely enough. So, using what at this point Kyomu assumed to be infinite funds, because he had yet to see any evidence to the contrary, they were making a building within the school's property to house dorms for them to live in. There wasn't that big a rush to construct them; seeing as that forest attack went so well with only a few students wounded, the work, while expedient, was still a bit off from being complete.

The funny part, however, was when their homeroom teacher Mr. Aizawa and All Might himself had to go from house to house to get all of 1-A's parents (or legal guardians, in the case of Kyomu) to agree to their children moving to school grounds. Midoriya had told Kyomu later on that it had been a real struggle for All Might due to the time limit. Kyomu, perhaps, had played a hand in that.

* * *

 **Two days ago**

 _"Dorms, huh?" Kyomu looked up from the form in his hand to the great, smiling teacher standing right in front of him. A teacher whose black business suit was practically ripping at the seams with how hard his muscles was pulling on them. "School really that shaken up from all the attacks?" he asked._

 _"Well, it is irregular. Even by the hero world's standards," All Might admitted. "It's a way for the school to keep a closer eye on all of you in a more secure environment, and to get some of the public pressure off the school's back." He cleared his throat and straightened his back up high. "And so, young Shinka! Are you ready to take the next great step in your hero academics!?" he boomed down at the student._

 _"You mean with moving?" The teen looked back down at the paper. "Sure, why not? Change of scenery might be nice," he said. Plus it could be fun living with all his friends from class. He'd never quite had an experience such as that._

 _"Fan-TASTIC." Two mighty thumbs were raised up at Kyomu's question. "Thing is..." His voice lowered to a much more subdued tone, "I technically need your acting guardian's signature to sign you off to us since we'll be officially responsible for you given your... status."_

 _"Oh, Mizo? Sure, no problem. She'll be all for it." Kyomu paused, and then looked back at the small building behind him. "You might have a hard time getting to her though, man," he said with a slight snicker._

 _All Might's smiling head tilted in confusion. "Huh? What do you mean?" He looked in the direction Kyomu was looking in, and it was only then he found what Kyomu meant. "Oh. Oh no."_

 _He managed to keep the smile up, but Kyomu could have sworn he saw his facial muscles twitch from fear. He_ knew _he saw sweat beginning to bead down his chiseled forehead, and he could have sworn he heard teeth chattering. Because there, pressed up against all the windows that were facing them, were children. Orphans, specifically. More orphans than the two could count, all pressed up against the glass and all focused directly on the muscled hero standing in front of Kyomu._

 _It was probably the closest the Void user had ever seen to All Might succumbing to fear._

 _"I..." All Might lowered himself to Kyomu's ear. "Young Shinka, I may need assistance," he whispered. "You're not a full hero yet, so you don't know how rabid kids can be. They can be more brutal than villains if they want to. Always grabbing and pulling and trampling each other to get to me. And that-" he briefly gestured to the orphanage, "is something I don't think I can take on at the moment."_

 _"Man, there is not a_ thing _I can do for you," Kyomu responded. "The second I open that door they're all gonna pour out. And it's too late to sneak in through a window. They already saw you." He shook his head, face going solemn. "Sorry, All Might. You'll have to deal with it."_

 _"Do I have to remind you I have a time limit tied to a very important secret, young Shinka? And I've been driving around with Mr. Aizawa all day to the other students' houses." He clapped his hands together in a pleading gesture. "I beg you. There must be something-!"_

 _"Your fate was sealed the moment you chose to step out of the car instead of Mr. Aizawa." Maybe it was a bit wrong of him to scrape as much amusement out of All Might's suffering as possible, but he could use the laughs. And more than that, the door he broke and fixed back when they first met never did sound quite right afterwards. Revenge on its own was petty. Revenge for the sake of entertainment was just desserts._

 _So with this in mind, Kyomu's hand grasped the handle to the door. All Might didn't even have time to form one more plea before the door was opened and the number one hero was assaulted by a wall of child flesh._

* * *

 **Present**

What a fun day that had been.

"Those dorms'll be up in about a week, right?" Kyomu asked. Probably even another reason he would have to stop his nightly activities, now that he thought about it. Sneaking out of the orphanage was one thing. UA dorms, surrounded by more adept heroes-in-training other hidden security features the school was sure to implement, was another. "Man, can't believe All Might actually went to everyone's houses with Mr. Aizawa. You must've fainted on the spot when All Might showed up on your doorstep, Midoriya."

The shorter teen immediately blushed. "I-I did not!" he defended. "I see him here as a teacher every day, so why would I freak out when he comes over to my house, huh!?"

The girl besides him croaked. "Your face says otherwise," she noted.

"That has nothing to do with this! I swear!"

Kyomu chuckled at the blustering teen, then looked out at the window and down at the ground below them. His blue eyes wandered to the wall surrounding UA, but then focused on the front gates. They were shut, and even more strangely there was a huge crowd of people in front of it.

 _"Another press mob?"_ he thought with a groan. _"Geez, these guys are relentless. Day one of coming back and they were flocking the gates like vultures. Probably here to ask us about the dorms. What, do they plan to ambush us on the way out?"_ His eyes narrowed. _"Well, they're real dedicated coming here in the middle of the day, aren't th-"_

 **BOOM!**

The massive explosion at the front gates knocked any thought from Kyomu's mind. In fact, the resulting shockwave from the explosion not only knocked him to the ground, but everyone else in the class as well.

Groaning, Kyomu rolled to his side. There were panicked yells all across the classroom and everyone was asking each other if they were okay. He looked up and saw everyone was picking themselves up, and then managed to stand up on his own feet. While doing so, he looked to the side and saw Midoriya helping Asui up, both looking up at him with bewildered expressions. Kyomu, himself already feeling worry build up in his stomach, once more moved towards the window.

"Can't have one normal month, can we?" he grunted as he pressed against the window and looked down. "They're bombing us now? Seriously?"

From what he saw, the gates were gone. Smithereens and warped, twisted metal was about all that was left, and a majority of the crowd that had been gathered there were laying around the blast area in shredded, charred remains. Kyomu felt anger well up in him at the sight alone, but soon after he, strangely enough, saw the survivors of that explosion begin to run past the open gates and towards the school.

Actually, now that he looked, _everyone_ was running to the school. The ones at the gate, pedestrians from the sidewalks over, onlookers from far away- _everyone_ was running towards the school. And even stranger was that, when he looked closer, he could see a small amount of teal light coming off each and every person. It was only after staring for a second did Kyomu realize that the glow was coming from all of their eyes.

He heard heavy breathing next to him, and turned his head to Midoriya. He was staring wide-eyed at the display below them while his hands were tightly gripping the window. "What's going on?" he whispered.

Kyomu gestured to the window. "Evidently, the civilians outside are attacking us," he dryly stated. "You notice all their eyes are glowing the same color?"

"They are?" Midoriya narrowed his eyes to get a better look. "They _are_ ," he realized.

"Well, I doubt everyone outside happens to have the same eye color," Kyomu said, "so what do you think? You're the resident Quirk expert. This a Quirk's doing?"

"M-... maybe." Midoriya stepped back from the window and put his hand to his chin and looked down. By this point the rest of class 1-A had gathered around the window and was looking down, with mixed feelings of shock, horror, and confusion playing across their faces. "If they all have those glowing eyes... they might be clones. They could have put disguises on, or another villain could have used another Quirk to disguise them," he mumbled. "Or even worse, it could be some kind of mind control Quirk, and all those people outside are innocents under control."

"Mind control? You mean like that Shinso guy?" Kyomu asked.

"I don't know, Shinka," he muttered back. "It could be mind control, it could be clones or fake puppets being controlled by a Quirk, or it could even be an illusion. I don't know." He shook his head. "Whatever the case, we should-"

"We should stay put is what we should do." All eyes turned towards Iida, who was at the center of the gathered crowd. He had on a stern if not concerned look, though his muscled arms were crossed and his eyes set straight forwards. "There are procedures the school puts in place for situations like these," he informed. "The school is filled with more than enough able-bodied heroes to deal with whatever is happening outside, including All Might. Even if that isn't enough, our close proximity to the city means that reinforcements from other heroes would be all but guaranteed should further assistance be needed." His head snapped down and his teeth grit. "As class representative, I'll have to ask that all of Class 1-A remains in this classroom so the heroes can take care of the situation."

There were unsure looks all around, along with some whispers passed on between the students. It was Uraraka who broke the silence when she spoke up. "I think Iida is right," she said. "We're... we're just students. We have some experience fighting villains, sure, but... well, we might just get in the way of the professionals if we try and help."

"With those numbers, though?" Kirishima argued. "No way! We can't just sit here and-"

"This isn't USJ or the training camp," Tokoyami reminded. "This isn't a situation where we have to defend ourselves because the heroes aren't there for us. We're safe in here, and the heroes are already out there. Iida's assessment is correct. We should stay back."

Besides the bird-headed teenager, Todoroki gave an approving hum. "The pros have licenses. We don't even have provisionals or permission from a teacher to defend ourselves," he supplied. "If one of those villains breaks in the room, then fine, we'll deal with it. But I'm in agreement that we should hang back."

Even Bakugo decided to give his two cents as he glanced out the window. "If stupid Midoriya is right and they are just mind-controlled people, they can't be that strong," he mumbled. "Yeah. Forget it. Let the teachers handle it."

If anybody was surprised in the blonde using Midoriya's actual name, nobody showed it, as concern was written on everybody's faces. More whispers were passed around, and from what Kyomu heard most were in agreement that they should stay put.

After feeling a tug on his uniform's sleeve, Kyomu turned his head. He saw Sen standing besides him, eyes glancing between him and the window. "What do ya think, Kyomu?" he asked. A few pairs of eyes turned to him. "Stay put like Iida says?"

Kyomu pursed his lips in thought, looked to the window, and then back to Sen. "... Yeah," he said. "There's plenty of heroes here. All Might and Mr. Aizawa. Snipe and Vlad King and Midnight. Tons others. They can do it." He looked up at Iida and gave him an approving nod. "Besides, we gave Iida the class rep title for a reason. I trust him to make these kinds of choices. More than I trust myself, at least."

He'd turned his head too quickly to catch the small smile and appreciative nod from Iida, but he hadn't missed the more relieved whispers all around him after he spoke. Intentionally or not, it seemed his own choice convinced a lot of the other students to agree to stay. In another time he would have been flattered to be so highly regarded by the others, but at the moment he was more focused on the current situation.

He did, of course, agree with Iida. The multiple heroes in the school could surely deal with whatever situation was going on outside. He surely didn't want to deal with it, especially if Midoriya was right and those were just regular people being controlled. The why of the situation, he didn't know, but that could wait. Right now was the time to be worrying about the now. And right now he wanted to stay with everyone else.

"That's all well and good..." Heads turned towards Shoji, who had turned the end of one of his tentacled limbs into an ear and pressed it against the window. "I noticed that all the people out there are screaming something. A single word." A beat passed. "Shinka... they're screaming your name."

Faces all around them went pale, and everyone turned towards Kyomu to gauge his reaction. Kyomu, for his part, stared at Shoji in surprise. "... Nah." He shook his head. "No way. You're mistaken."

"I'm not," Shoji assured. "I'm listening right now."

"Riiiight..." Slowly, Kyomu reached towards the latch to one of the windows. He could have sworn he heard breaths being held behind him. "I think it's great you're tryin' to develop a sense of humor, Shoji, but you got terrible timing with the whole school-under-attack thing." He undid the latch, and cautiously reached towards the window. "I mean, really, why would a bunch of random-"

"SHINKA!" He'd opened the window. Immediately the class was assaulted with a cacophony of screaming voices shouting that one, single name at the top of their lungs. "SHINKA! SHINKA! SHIN-!"

The window was promptly slammed shut, and the latch re-did. Kyomu's eyes had gone wide, and the rest of 1-A were giving him concerned looks. Some, like Kirishima, Bakugo, and Sato, were even looking down at the approaching crowd with disdain. Kyomu himself was just as confused as the rest of them, and had to take a few seconds to process that, yes, the people down below _were_ shouting his name. Which did not bode well.

"Kyomu? Man?" He felt someone, Sen from the sound of their voice, shake his shoulder. "Dude? You alright?"

"... I mean, Shinka's a pretty common name, right?" he weakly asked. "There's... there's no way they're all storming the school just to get to-" He cut himself off, and then snapped his head to the window. In the distance, past some buildings, he could see flashes of bright, white light slowly approaching. The flashes turned into a solid stream that was rapidly approaching the school, at which point Kyomu swore under his breath. "You gotta be kidding- duck!"

Upon him yelling that word, everyone had obliged and had thrown themselves down to the floor. No sooner had they done this, a white blur crashed through the glass window right into the class. Todoroki, to his credit, had quickly waved one of hands to the side to ice over windows. Everybody else turned their eyes to the white form laying on the ground in front of them.

Kyomu almost felt an aneurysm come on when he saw it was his brother lying on the floor.

"... Hey." He blinked his crimson eyes at the class and slowly got to his knees. "I can explain-"

That was as far as he got before a myriad of powers were flashed right in front of him in a threatening manner. He looked ready to retaliate, too, until black tears in space appeared between the students and Hikari, followed by Kyomu standing up on his feet.

"Everybody chill out," he snapped. "And you-" he pointed at Hikari, "- the _hell_ do you think you're doing here?"

Hikari quickly stood to his feet and waved his hands. "Look, I know it looks bad, but you gotta listen to me!"

"What are you doing here!?" Kyomu repeated. The black portals faded, and, though guarded, the rest of 1-A sent concerned looks over to Kyomu as he grabbed tufts of his hair, shook his head, and looked at Hikari in a disbelieving manner. "You- you can't be here! You'll- what the hell gave you the idea of coming here!?"

 _Smack!_

Kyomu's head was whipped to the side following a pale hand slapping his cheek. Considering the slap had come in at speeds enhanced by his brother's Quirk, he couldn't have done much to avoid it. He did, however, slowly tilt his head back to Hikari, who was nervously shifting glances between his brother and his class.

"Look. I came because I was worried about you," he said, slowly. "There're... I don't know. People that blow up looking for us. The people with the teal eyes. Might be a single person with a Quirk, I don't know. But somebody out there is gunning real hard for us." He sighed and stepped back. "I was walking down the street and this random guy just started shouting my name and blew up. I got out in time and then more and more people started running towards me to try and blow me up. I almost got blasted five times getting here." He took a breath, and then rubbed a hand over his forehead. "Then I got here and I saw the same people storming your school, so I came to check on you."

At hearing this, Kyomu pulled back towards the rest of his class. "You're not... this isn't some kind of attack from the League?" he asked, and then gestured to the white-haired teen. "None of this is you? Not Shigaraki pulling some scheme or-"

"No, this isn't Shigaraki!" Hikari shouted. "I know for a fact he hasn't been planning something this crazy, and I live with him! And why would he want to blow me up when I'm practically his right-hand!? I had to cross whole cities to get here- you think I'm gonna put that much effort in on a scheme!?" He quickly inhaled. "I don't know who's doing this, I don't know why they're doing this, and I especially don't know why they're after us of all people. But they are." He turned around and pointed to the door. "So come on, we gotta go."

The dark-haired twin wanted to retort, but found himself at a loss as to what to say to his brother. The look he had in his eyes certainly wasn't helping matters: wide and concerned, almost panicked. And furthermore, his clothes were slightly scorched, too. The fact they were all white made the markings all the easier to see.

And besides, proven liar he may be, he _was_ Hikari's twin. Their intelligence was nearly equal, and Kyomu knew Hikari wouldn't take this kind of risk if he weren't serious about the situation. Coming here over his safety, acting so casual around him in front of the whole class... if they weren't careful, that alone would be enough to rouse suspicion. He was supposed to be a hero, and Hikari was supposed to be a villain. With how they'd interacted thus far, they'd somewhat painted an image of being bitter rivals in front of the class.

"Hold it right there." A muscular arm was chopped in the air between the two. The twins' eyes slowly rose up to the arm's owner, Iida, who was staring down harshly at Hikari. Hikari, for his part, was looking up at him in confusion while Kyomu looked up in worry. "You're not going anywhere, and you are especially not taking our classmate with you."

"... Yeah I am," Hikari said.

"No. You're not."

"... Uh..." The white-haired teen blinked, and then looked to Kyomu for help. His response was a mere shrug, causing Hikari to roll his eyes and look back up at Iida. "You know that there's not a single person in here that can physically stop me, right?"

And this is where he had to step in before Hikari made things any worse. "Okay, okay, calm down. Everyone." He held his arms out and caused both teens to back up. "Look, he's right. I can't be here."

Following these words were an explosion of protests from everyone in the class. Kyomu had actually winced and had tried holding up a finger to try and calm everyone, but all that had done was seemingly make the situation worse and make everyone yell louder. They only finally calmed down when Bakugo let out a small explosion in his palm and stomped forwards.

"You can't be serious!" he shouted as he pointed at the white-haired twin. "You're seriously gonna take the words of a villain at face value? When we're under attack by villains right now!?"

"I mean, yeah?" Kyomu rubbed the back of his neck and coughed to the side at the bewildered looked he was given. "Whaddya want me to say? He's my brother."

"Your _villain_ brother?" he reminded. "The one who killed your parents?"

Kyomu winced. He had a point, even if the facts were wrong. But that couldn't be helped. "Be that is it may..." he mumbled, "I don't see a reason for him to be lying to me, especially if the... possessed or whatever people out there are after him, too."

Midoriya's eyes hardened. "That's what he _says_ , at least."

"Look, Mido, I seriously think-"

The door handle on the door leading into the room began to turn. Everybody became quiet at that, and looked towards the door as it swung wide open. There were sighs of relief all around when the dark-suited form of Aizawa was standing on the other side. He slowly turned his head up to face the whole class, and the relief started to rapidly taper away when his eyes weren't their normal dark color, or even the red of his Quirk. It was glowing a teal color.

"Shinka..." The capture scarf he kept wrapped around him flowed freely before two strips shot out from his body and wrapped not only around Kyomu, but Hikari as well. He began shouting their last name as they were both dragged forwards, but, before anybody else could do anything, Kyomu had snapped his fingers and a Void portal had filled the doorway separating them and Aizawa while also cutting the scarf pieces.

The scarf fell slack, and the twins threw the remnants off as quickly as possible. "You didn't tell me the possessed people could spread the Quirk to others," Kyomu quipped as he kicked the scarf away.

"Dude. This is all new to me. Give me a break." Hikari brushed his own scarf fragments off his shoulder. "And either they can spread it to others, or the person behind this Quirk is nearby. Either way, it's all the more reason for us to leave." He turned to Kyomu's class. "So you believe me now, or do we gotta wait for a possessed All Might to smash his way in here? I don't know if the possessed have a collective consciousness or not, but with or without it they're gonna check here eventually. Doubly so if they do."

"You don't know that!" Midoriya argued. "If-"

"Midoriya." The shorter teen closed his mouth and snapped his eyes to Kyomu, who was shaking his head. "Those people outside the gate. They exploded." He turned to Hikari to address him. "Do they survive the explosion?"

"From what I saw?" Hikari shook his head. "No. Explosion kills 'em. Whoever is trying to kill us is making puppets to try and suicide bomb us."

That revelation was enough to get everyone to quiet down and think. Soon enough, grim looks came across some faces, followed by anger. The amount of raw negative emotion was so palpable that the two twins could feel it radiating off of the class, and Kyomu had even taken a step back.

"Then... then that means..." A hand came up to Ashido's mouth as the pink girl backed into a desk. "All those people out the gate... our teachers and classmates..." she gasped out, her oddly colored eyes widened and shaking.

"H-hey, Ashido, it's okay." Jiro had slid over and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, though her eyes were focused solely on Hikari. "If our friends or teachers die just because some crazy asshole wants to kill you-"

"From what I've seen they've only exploded when near my. That likely goes for Kyomu, too," Hikari supplied. "They probably only blew the gate to get in here. As long as we two keep our distance we should be fine."

"We... haven't heard any explosions since the gate," Tokoyami agreed. "In fact... I don't even hear any sounds of fighting. Do you, Shoji?"

The masked student shook his head. "No. Nothing. There was some yelling and fighting in the beginning, but... it cut out a bit ago."

The implication was clear enough, and only served to set the class more on edge. If there was one thing victorious heroes were not, it was quiet. There would have been yells of safety once the fighting was over, or even an announcement over the PA system. Something to let them know everything was okay. Silence was not what they should have been hearing right now if there were still victorious heroes. And the fact Aizawa was possessed didn't set a good precedent for the situation outside.

"So what are we going to do?" Mineta asked.

"I told you. Me and my brother have to leave," Hikari said. "We're just putting people in danger by being near them. Not only the unaffected people, but the people who will explode to try and kill us if we get too close. So we need to leave, let the heroes sort this out."

"Then we'll go to the police station." Both brothers' eyes widened at the proclamation, and they looked down at Midoriya. The teen face was set in a worried grimace, but his green eyes were focused and his body steady as he slowly nodded his head.

There was a disbelieving scoff in the student crowd. "You can't be serious-" Bakugo began, but then stopped when Midoriya shot him a glare.

"They're right," he said. "They're putting people in danger by being near. The likeliest place to not be affected by this Quirk would be hero agencies and the police station. If the situation really is this bad, then the heroes would be out to try and contain the situation. The police station should still be manned by the police force, though, even if we're assuming they're stretched thin and out there helping the heroes. If the two go there, not only will they be safe, but they'll be isolated from any of the affected civilians." He looked up at Hikari. "And it gets him in a jail cell."

Hikari grimaced. "Yeesh, harsh." He sighed, slumped his shoulders, and looked at Kyomu. "I don't really like the whole go-to-the-cops plan, but... his logic's sound. There's not really anywhere safer to go I can think of that's close by. And..." He looked at the iced windows and sighed again. "I don't want more people dying just to get at us. Especially if they're your teachers and friends. So... yeah, sure. I'll go to the police station if you're with me, Kyomu."

Blue eyes widened in surprise. Behind him, Kyomu could even sense a shift in his classmates' demeanor when they heard Hikari's words. Him, a villain, caring about the wellbeing of others. Someone who had murdered his own parents as far as they knew. Who-

"Just don't expect me to stay," Hikari added. "I'm breaking out once this whole mess is over with."

And there it was. Everybody went back to sending him judgmental and harsh stares, and Kyomu had to roll his eyes at his brother's words. He even had to wonder how much of that was him trying to keep up his villain facade and how much of it was him just not wanting to get locked in a jail cell for an extended period of time. But that was his brother's problem; Kyomu himself was just anxious to leave.

"Alright," the black-haired twin called out, "so me and my murderous brother-" Hikari clicked his tongue besides him, "- are gonna go to the police station so people don't explode trying to kill us. Any objections?" There were none. "Okay. So you all are going to stay here and weather this all out?"

"Actually, if I could add something." Yaoyorozu rose a hand to gain the class's attention. "Should we not send one or two people with them to make sure they get to the station?"

"Not being passive aggressive at all..." Hikari grumbled. "But fine, whatever."

Kyomu jabbed his elbow into his twin's side, and then looked to Iida. "Is this all good with you, class rep? Us leaving you behind like this? I know I sided with you on the whole 'staying put' thing, but..." He nodded his head at the villain besides him. "Well, you know."

"I'm not really good with any of this, Shinka. But desperate times." He gave a nod. "We'll send two along with you to make sure your brother actually makes it to the station with you."

"Great, fine, good. Now how are we getting out of here?" Hikari asked. "The windows are still iced over and I don't really think you letting Void off the front door is safe, Kyomu. So where're we going?"

"Hm..." Kyomu glanced around the room, and hummed in thought until his head swiveled down at the floor. "There's a class right below us, right?" he asked. "Think, uh... think I can just, y'know, cut through the floor?"

* * *

"This is the greatest plan, bro. Really. Flawless in its design. I'm shocked your League of Villains hasn't made any headway with such a brilliant mind like you at the front."

"Hey. It's working, isn't it?"

"Yeah, 'til we bump into something and a school full of exploding zombies pounce on us." A large sigh. "We already dealt with this zombie nonsense. Why do we gotta deal with it again?"

"... What do you mean you've dealt with zombies before?"

"Ah, there was this guy during training one time and he had a literal zombie Quirk. You remember that guy, right, Bakugo? The zombie guy? Fun day, huh?"

"Will. You both. Quit. _Talking_?"

"It's fine, man. My hardlight bubble's soundproof. They can't hear us."

The sound of small explosions. "Great, then they won't hear me blast one of your arms off if you don't shut up!"

"Your classmate's a real soggy guy, Kyomu." Another explosion. "Shutting up."

The plan was really simple. Objective: get Kyomu and Hikari to the police station without alerting the possessed students and staff of UA, as well as anybody else they found along the way affected by the mystery Quirk. It was a plan the class had agreed on, and Bakugo and Midoriya had been selected to escort them to make sure that Kyomu got there safely and that Hikari wouldn't run off.

The method? A bubble. Specifically, a bubble made from hardlight via Hikari's Light Quirk.

Assuming they would automatically lock onto the two brothers and detonate once they determined they were close enough, the four students couldn't risk alerting any of the affected as they made their way through the school. The problem was that the school was positively filled with them. Virtually every single student, teacher, and hero was walking aimless through the halls, dead-eyed with their irises glowing that same bright teal color. Midoriya himself had been disheartened at the sight, while Bakugo had huffed out in anger upon seeing everybody. The twins had more or less been indifferent, though the grim looks on their faces was enough to set the mood for the whole group.

Fortunately, Hikari had an extremely acute control over light with his Quirk. So he'd formed a bubble of hardlight around them, and then made it so that any light that impacted the bubble perfectly refracted around them. In layman's terms? He'd made an invisibility field. And evidently it was, in fact, soundproof as none of the possessed people had noticed Bakugo's shouting. So, assuming nothing went wrong, they could just walk their way to the police station without the worse happening.

They'd managed to creep past half the school before the twins became bored and began talking. Hikari had quieted down after Bakugo's threats, but the two brothers were still conversing quietly among themselves.

It was something Midoriya found odd the further they went, and even odder was Shinka Kyomu's expression. Over the months he'd known him, Midoriya had always known Kyomu's default personality to be a bored, somewhat neutral one. Sometimes he'd grow slightly warmer when conversing or training with classmates. On rare occasions he'd display a sort of... cold fury, usually in the event of fighting villains. The Stain incident, for instance. Bakugo had also made an offhand comment on how he'd been uncharacteristically brutal on one of the villains that had attacked them at the camp.

So when his brother, who was not only a villain but was the one who was responsible for making him an orphan, he'd expected the worst. He'd expected the darker-haired teen to be shooting dirty glares and insults at the lighter-haired one. Worst case it would come to violence. It was part of the reason Midoriya had volunteered to be one of the ones to escort the two to the police station: one because he was one of the only people strong enough to restrain him should the need arise, and because he was one of the few people whose opinion Kyomu respected and would probably listen to.

But none of that was happening. The two were just talking like two normal people, much to Bakugo's chagrin. They kept going back and forth in a friendly manner, and he could have sworn he saw the two smiling from time to time. Smiling. Kyomu. Not that he _never_ smiled, but eighty-five percent of the time it was just because he was either teasing or mocking somebody while the other fifteen percent was genuine. But what he was seeing here flew in the face of all of that.

He stepped closer to Bakugo and elbowed his side. The taller teen growled and looked down at him, but said nothing and waited for Midoriya to speak. "Doesn't this seem... odd to you?" he whispered to him. "They're acting so friendly towards one another."

"Yeah. You'd think they hate each other with how much the idiots stab each other," he whispered back. "Couldn't say why they're acting so chummy. Especially why Shinka of all people is acting that way with a villain. A parent-killing villain."

"This parent-killing villain has really good ears," Hikari called back, causing the two to flinch. "What? We almost never get a chance to hang out anymore. Why is it so surprising we enjoy this time together?"

"Maybe because you're a villain? And Void Boy over there hates villains' guts with a passion?" Bakugo looked over to Kyomu, who was doing his best to keep his head forwards. "Shinka, you can't honestly be calm right now with somebody you should hate."

Kyomu coughed. "Ah, yeah man, it's, you, y-you know how it is, man. Y'know?" He clicked his tongue. "It is what it is."

Hikari snorted. "Smooth."

"Hey, I thought you were shutting up?" Kyomu snapped before turning his head to face Bakugo. "And what about you, huh? You used to hate Midoriya-"

"I still hate him."

"And yet you don't call him Deku anymore. And every time he opens his mouth around you your mouth doesn't start frothing like you're about to bite him."

At hearing this, Midoriya glanced up at Bakugo. He saw the blonde giving him the same glance before he scoffed and turned away. "You said we should get along," Midoriya explained. "Ever since the Sports Festival you've been trying to ease some of the friction between us so we could work together in a professional sense." He paused, and then shook his head. "No, even before that. Even more than a decade ago, at that stream."

"Oh, yeah." Hikari snapped his fingers and pointed up as the realization hit him. "That was back when I decked that one kid in the face, right? I remember."

"Yeah, our parents died the same night," Kyomu reminded him.

"... Oh. Yeah."

The four continued to walk in silence after that. Midoriya would continue to stare at Hikari's back, even as the four finally passed through the front doors and made their way to the destroyed security gate. It was only when they finally passed the gates and made it to the sidewalk did he finally decide to speak once again.

"Shinka Hikari." The addressed made a hum of acknowledgement, but otherwise kept his back to Midoriya as they walked. "Why did you do what you did?"

"How many times do I have to explain to you I didn't want my brother to explode?" he asked.

The teen's green eyes hardened. "You know what I mean."

"Ah." Hikari exhaled slowly. "You wouldn't understand," he said, "and even if you did, regardless, I'm not telling."

"Just like that? That's all you have to say to?" The short teen shook his head. "You don't think your brother deserves to know why you-"

"Midoriya." This came from Kyomu, who had turned his head so that their eyes could meet. He was sent such a harsh glare that Midoriya actually found himself shrinking back. "Drop it."

He blinked. "Drop it?" he repeated, barely above a whisper before he found his confidence and straightened his back. "Drop it? You... Shinka, it's your parents! And the villain that killed them-!"

"I know why he did it." Kyomu's head went back forwards, and at the same time the four crossed a corner. "He's right. You wouldn't understand."

* * *

"He's right. You wouldn't understand."

This was one of the reasons he really didn't want people to see him and his brother together. Questions start getting asked. Questions like "why aren't you as violent with him as any other villain' or 'why did he do what he did, and why do you seem so indifferent about it?' and other questions along those lines. The problem was that he'd never made up any good excused for these questions because he never foresaw this kind of event happening. He'd always been so careful meeting his brother because of this kind of thing.

And over to the left he could see that Hikari wasn't faring any better. His walk and gait seemed confident, but his face seemed concerned and he was chewing on his lower lip as his red eyes occasionally flicked over to Kyomu as he spoke to Midoriya. He was concerned, and while Kyomu was doing a much better job at hiding it, so was he. It was a precarious lie to begin with that was only so successful because nobody bothered to look too closely at a case where a villain confessed. That lie could only be maintained as long as they never drew attention to it.

These kinds of questions drew a lot of attention.

"Were your parents really that bad?" Bakugo asked. He sounded unsure, like he was trying to guess the answer to all these questions. "Is that it? They abuse you till you get a shiny new Quirk and find out you could just blast them to kingdom come? Huh?"

"No, there's no way." Midoriya shook his head and refuted the claim. "Their mother was a hero. There's no way she could have been an abusive... was she?" he questioned them. "Shinka, were-?"

"How 'bout we change the subject?" Kyomu suggested. "You think we made the right move leaving the rest of the class in that room? I had to drop the Void portal since we're going so far away, and a locked door won't hold them off for long if they decide to bust in. The fact I used Void to cut a big hole in the floor doesn't really help much, either."

It got them to quiet down about Hikari's reasoning, at least. At the very least he was hoping this moment of silence they were taking was on of thought and not one where they were wondering why he was so quick to deflect questions.

 _"Who am I kidding? They're two of the smartest people in the class, right next to Iida, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu. And me, of course,"_ Kyomu thought. _"They're suspicious as hell and this isn't gonna go away. No amount of avoiding is gonna change that now. Egh. I'll deal with it as it comes. Can't do much else otherwise because I didn't plan for this."_

"Iida really didn't want to move the whole class," Midoriya provided. "He had a hard time just letting us go. And besides, I... don't think it really matters all that much. Just look around."

He had a point. As they made their way down the streets, they didn't see even one single person who wasn't affected by the strange Quirk. From building to building street street to street, there were people everywhere. Men, women, children, and even some heroes just standing or wandering aimlessly, and all of them had that eerie teal glow to their eyes. And even more eerie was the noise, or lack thereof. It seemed when they didn't lock onto one of the brothers, they were completely idle.

"Yeah, this Quirk spread to multiple cities," Hikari said. "Thousands, tens, maybe hundreds of thousands... makes sense if the possessed people can spread it to others. Like a virus."

"Even then, it couldn't have spread so fast so quickly. In a single afternoon," Midoriya muttered. "There would have been warnings, heroes to take care of the problem, police checkpoints and evacuations... it couldn't have gone out of hand so quickly."

"They only ever freak out when they see a Shinka," the white-haired teen added. "Maybe it's like this: person with this Quirk touched one person, and they, for the most part, acted completely normal as they inconspicuously went to other people, touched them, and spread it. Meanwhile the root of the problem, the one with the Quirk, hops onto a train, goes to another city, touches someone at the station, then keeps going from station to station through multiple cities. Even with a couple of hours, one infected touches one normal person to make two infected, two makes four, four to eight, etcetera... and that's just with one city. By the point people noticed the problem it would have been way too late."

A terrifying prospect, really. Moreso considering whoever it was behind this was after the Shinkas, and even moreso that this same person was willing to let people affected by this Quirk self-destruct in an effort to try and kill them. Frankly speaking, this was a devastating attack, and Kyomu had no idea how large the repercussions would be after this was over. Especially considering this person was gunning for them. That was going to open up all sorts of uncomfortable questions, and he didn't even have the answers to them.

Why the two brothers? Why them specifically? And who even was it? Somebody who knew one of the villains that Kyomu had killed? No possible way; he didn't leave traces. Nobody but Hikari knew, and know way he had told anybody. Somebody who had a grudge against the League and was trying to get at Hikari, one of their arguably most powerful members? Not likely, otherwise they wouldn't be going for Hikari, too. A friend of their parents who wanted to avenge them by killing the villainous son who murdered them? Again, not likely, otherwise they wouldn't be going for Kyomu as well. So why? What did they do? And to who?

He honestly didn't know. And when he looked to Hikari, who only shook his head, he knew that Hikari didn't know, either.

"The police station should be around this corner, right, Midoriya?" Kyomu asked as he raised a hand and pointed at an approaching turn. "I'm not really all that familiar with the area."

Midoriya looked forwards and, after examining the area for a moment, gave an affirmative hum. "Yeah, it's just ahead," he said with a nod. "Hopefully they'll already be at work with the heroes to contain the situation and figure out what to do. I just- hm?"

There was a buzzing sound. The four teenagers stopped and looked towards the source, which was coming from Midoriya's pocket. His mobile phone. The two Shinkas looked at him in curiosity while Bakugo's eyebrows creased in anger as he scowled at the smaller student. Midoriya, just as confused as the two brothers, slowly reached into his pocket and dug for his phone.

"Who in the world is calling me right now?" he wondered as he brought the device out. "It can't be my mother, could it? Calling to see if I'm okay? No, that-" He cut himself off and stared wide-eyed at the phone's screen. Bakugo craned his neck over his shoulder to get a look at the screen, and he, too, seized up in shock when he saw the image. The two brothers blinked at each other before they stepped behind Midoriya to look at the screen.

Upon seeing it, Hikari hissed through his teeth while Kyomu began to feel seething rage.

It was a picture of the remainder of Class 1-A, all lined up singe-file. Besides them were their teachers: Aizawa, Midnight, Present Mic, and Ectoplasm to name a few. All Might was there, too, though in his true, underpowered form. And all of them, from the students to the teachers, had blank, empty looks and eyes that glowed a bright teal.

And right at the bottom of the screen was a simple text. It was labeled as Uraraka's text, which Kyomu assumed meant they used her phone. The text read as such: "Bring the two Shinka boys to the school, and I will release everybody who has been touched by my Quirk. If this is not done within one hour, they die."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding," Bakugo seethed as he rubbed a hand viciously through his hair. "This psycho is holding our whole class hostage now just to get to them!?"

"This guy..." Kyomu had to take a deep breath just to calm himself. "Okay. This doesn't change anything. We're gonna keep going to the police station." He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. _"'They'... the hell does 'they' mean? Just the class, or... he wouldn't seriously threaten to kill all these people just to get to us, would he? Would he!? That's... what did Hikari or I do to make this person so desperate!?"_

Hikari widened his eyes in surprise. "You sure?" he asked. "Thought they were your pals. You don't want to-"

"He's right," Midoriya breathed out. His whole body was shuddering, and Bakugo, who stood besides him, wasn't faring much better, but they both kept their composure as they faced the Light user. "If you two go there, that just puts them in danger. We can't trust the words of a villain, no matter how good it sounds." He shook his head. "Besides. We have an hour. That's more than enough time for the heroes to fix this."

"What heroes?" Hikari asked. Midoriya ignored him and pocketed his phone, and the four went from walking to sprinting towards the police station. "Seriously, Midoriya, I haven't seen a single hero around helping, so what do you think-"

"I don't want to hear it from you!" Midoriya yelled at him as the four ran. "Kyomu agrees with me, and Bakugo hasn't raised any objections! That's more than enough for me to go on! I don't need to hear it from a villain, and especially from a villain that killed me friend's parents and almost killed All Might!"

Kyomu, running besides the pair, heard this and opened his mouth to argue, but at that point the four rounded the final corner to the police station. After doing so, he saw something that made his eyes widen in panic. "Whoa, guys, stop! Stop-stop-stop-STOP!" He held his arms out to the side to the slow them down, and the abrupt halt in movement caused the soles of their shoes to slide along the pavement as they ground to ta halt.

They did, thankfully, halt. Bakugo personally shot Kyomu a hostile glare, but when he caught Midoriya and Hikari staring ahead with wide eyes, he followed their glares to the point of interest. It was only then did his jaw drop.

They'd arrived at the police station, alright. It wasn't in one piece, though- in fact, it was on fire. None of the officers seemed seriously hurt, at the very least. Half of them were turned into teal-eyed puppets and were attacking the remaining half, but otherwise they were alright. Otherwise it was complete chaos.

"How did we not hear... oh." Hikari's eyes blinked in realization as his eyes tilted up. "I made the bubble soundproof. I guess that goes both ways. Whoops."

Kyomu suspect that, were the situation not so dire, Midoriya would have actually slapped his brother judging by the look he was giving him. Which in itself was amazing, as, other than smashing in villains, Midoriya was one of the most mild-mannered people Kyomu knew. He really must not like him that much.

"They're attacking the police station." Kyomu's eyes focused in on one of the officers who was sprawled out on the ground. One of the teal-eyed officers was running towards him, and the floored officer tried to crawl away. He was too slow, and the possessed officer hopped right above him and grabbed his right hand. There was a flash of teal energy where the two hands made contact, and the officer on the ground spasmed briefly before his brown eyes began to grow teal. He slowly stood up off the ground, and afterwards the two possessed officers sprinted off. "And the possessed people can infect others through contact," he noted. "Looks like your theory's panning out, Hikari."

Before anybody could respond, there was a bright flash of light as an explosion went off in the station. A part of it collapsed into a heap of rubble, which had no time to settle before whatever was buried beneath it began to move around and shift the rubble. Midoriya was about ready to jump out of the bubble before a large, muscled arm with pitch-black skin burst out from the rubble. Upon seeing that arm, he, along with Bakugo, froze.

"Oi, oi, oi, oi... what the hell is this?" A large, nervous grin began to spread over Bakugo's face as the body attached to the arm began to dig out. "What the hell is that thing doing here!?"

"Eh?" Hikari squinted and leaned his head forwards. He saw the upper body of the thing digging out of the rubble. His red eyes immediately locked onto the exposed brain on its head and the beak in place of a mouth, at which point he made an "ah" sound of realization. "It's Nomu. Now I remember; thing got captured after USJ. Shigaraki stressed over it for weeks. Thought it got carted off to Tartarus?"

"They... couldn't legally put it in a maximum-security prison since it didn't display signs of sapience. It was considered inhumane..." Midoriya slowly answered. "The surviving Nomu from the Stain incident were kept somewhere else, but this Nomu was considered so dangerous they left it in the care of the police. All this fighting must have freed it!"

Humming, Kyomu gave a nod. "Ah, that's, that's real great. So what are-"

This was when Midoriya _did_ jump out of the bubble, right when the Nomu was barreling towards an officer who was blindly firing at it. This had two effects: one was that Bakugo began swearing up a storm and launched after Midoriya with his Quirk. The second thing to happen was that all of the possessed people swiveled their heads towards the two teens. The bubble, thankfully, hadn't shattered upon their leaving and instead just wavered slightly before it steadied itself.

"Oh, you're kiddng." The two teens shot each other concerned glares as the Nomu snapped its head from the panicking officer to the two teens flying towards it. Kyomu had to suppress an annoyed growl as a black portal opened in front of him. "Now I gotta go deal with this."

Hikari started and reached towards his brother. "Kyomu, they'll see you-!"

It was too late. Kyomu had slipped through the portal before Hikari could stop him, and jumped out of a second portal right in front of Bakugo and Midoriya. He grabbed Midoriya's wrist and twisted midair, and then released to throw him out of the way. Right as he did so, an onyx fist punched the space that Midoriya had previously occupied and displaced the air with enough force that Bakugo, who had been trailing right behind Midoriya, was flung away.

 _"This thing matched All Might blow-for-blow. You're not strong enough, you guys!"_ Kyomu twisted once more and landed on his feet, facing the Nomu, who stared down at him. _"Void can do it, though. All I gotta do is drop him in... wait, what?"_

The Nomu wasn't making any moves at him. It definetely was acknowledging his existence, as it was staring blankly at him, but otherwise it wasn't moving. Confused, Kyomu leaned to the left. Its eyes followed him, but the rest of its body stayed still.

"... You're not attacking me...?" Kyomu muttered to himself. "What's the deal with that?" He scrunched his face in puzzled confusion, but then dropped it and shrugged. "Weird, but whatever. I'm still wasting you."

He snapped his fingers. A hole opened up under the creature, and it dropped into Void. The portal closed right after. And then the air displaced all around him, and he found a panting Hikari next to him, his body hunched over and his hands on his knees.

"You reckless idiot," he breathed out. "I managed get the invisibility bubble back around you before any of them saw you, but don't make me do that again. Almost gave me a heart attack."

"Needed to make sure the bird monster didn't splatter my friends. But sure, if you promise not to tell Shigaraki I dropped his pet monster into another dimension." Kyomu cast his eyes down to the ground and nodded his head down. "What was up with that? I thought that thing was a mindless killing machine?"

"Don't know, don't care." He sighed and straightened his body out. "More importantly... we have a problem." He pointed in the direction behind him. "Look. You tossed Midoriya right onto one of them."

Kyomu's breath hitched in his throat. His head spun in the direction his brother was pointing, and then he hissed out when he saw the small teen's body lying right on top of one of the possessed. He seemed to realize the position he was in, and he grew panicked and began to struggle, but was too late as the possessed police officer's hand reached up and touched his elbow. Midoriya spasmed, and his green eyes began to glow teal.

Unfortunately, Bakugo hadn't fared much better at all. His displacement due to the Nomu's punch had thrust him right into the middle of a large group of possessed officers. He'd tried fighting back and protecting himself, but he had enough sense to know he couldn't use too much excessive force on them. That combined with their numbers allowed the officers to literally dogpile him and bury him under their bodied. Seconds later they all slipped off of him and a teal-eyed Bakugo rose up off the ground.

By the end of it, besides from the two Shinka teens, there wasn't anybody left in the vicinity of the crumbling station that wasn't possessed. The twins' faces were set in a grim tone, Kyomu's moreso as he looked forlornly at the two possessed UA students. Hikari glanced at his brother's face before sighing and turning around.

"Across the street is a building," he said. "We gotta leave. Use Void to get to the roof over there. I'll be with you in a second."

Face sullen, Kyomu gave a nod. A flash of black later he was standing on top of the rooftop, and two seconds later he perceived a flash of white light followed by his brother stepping up besides them. A few seconds of silence passed before Kyomu's composure came out and he began yelling.

"Aw, that's great! That's just great!" In his rage he kicked at the roof and sent some loose stone flying away. Hikari watched the spectacle silently with his arms crossed as Kyomu stomped back and forth in front of him. "Some creep's trying to kill us and my whole class, no, my whole _school_ is under control a Quirk that's gonna blow them all up if we don't give ourselves up!" He groaned out loudly, grabbed at his hair, and faced Hikari. "What did you do, man!? Who did you and your group of villain flunkies piss off so much that some wacko is trying to kill us!?"

"Pretty sure if that were the case they'd be after the whole League instead of us," Hikari demurred. "What about you? You're out there killing villains at night. How do you know you didn't kill somebody that was important to whoever is doing this?"

Kyomu rounded on his brother and held up one finger. "One, I didn't ever leave witnesses." He held up a second finger. "Two, I stopped doing that." Hikari raised his eyebrows in surprise, and Kyomu sighed out and slumped his shoulders. "Alright, yelling isn't gonna get us anywhere. We gotta figure out where this guy is and get him."

"Get him?" Hikari repeated. "You mean kill him?"

"Kill the psycho, Quirk'll probably deactivate automatically. It's our best chance at freeing everybody," Kyomu explained. "Yeah, sure, there's gonna be problems later. Problems like people asking me why they were after me and how the situation got solved. There's witnesses who heard them shouting my name. My class heard." He ran a hand over his face. "But I'd rather deal with all those problems than having my friends explode. And there's nobody else that can help us on this. So we're killing them."

Hikari cupped his chin and dipped his head down. Humming in thought, his eyes flicked to Kyomu. "I could bring the League in on this," he suggested. "Shigaraki might help since my life's on the line here, too."

Kyomu shook his head. Violently. "Hell no. A villain is responsible for all this and you wanna bring more in?"

"Y'know, technically, I'm a villain. So that argument is kind of weak."

"Yeah, and _technically_ so am I, so shut up."

"... Fair point," Hikari conceded. "Alright. Find the villain, kill the villain, save everyone. Fine. I can get behind that." The white-haired teen walked over to a nearby venting unit and leaned a shoulder on it. "So step one is finding him. Step two is make the rest up afterwards. That about the gist of your plan?"

The other twin nodded. "About so."

"Yeah, thought so. Ugh." He shook his head. "I can't think of anything better, so fine, we'll go with it. Step one: find the villain." He looked at Kyomu. "Villain would be at the school, right? Since he sent that message to Midoriya?"

"... Not necessarily." Brows furrowed, Kyomu leaned on the venting unit besides Hikari and began to tap his foot in thought. "What do we know about the Quirk?" he asked.

"The user can possess people. Possessed people can spread the Quirk to others via direct contact. There doesn't seem to be a limit to the amount of people that can be possessed. Proximity to the user doesn't seem to matter, either." Hikari slowly recited the details off his fingers while Kyomu watched. "The possessed people can self-destruct. They seem to be following the instruction of finding and blowing us up while possessing everybody they see. Whether these instructions were made beforehand or if they have a mental connection to the Quirk user is unclear. That's it."

Nodding along, Kyomu slowly breathed out and extended two fingers. "Okay. So, based on all this information, there's two places this guy is at. He's either at the school or he's on a train." He turned to Hikari. "I'm banking on him being on the train."

A beat passed between the two. Hikari cocked an eye at his brother, but Kyomu's face remained still. The black-haired twin had a sure look in his eyes, though, even though Hikari had no idea how he had come to that conclusion. So he couldn't help but ask. "And how'd you come to that conclusion, detective?"

"A lot of it depends on your 'the Quirk user used the public train' theory," Kyomu explained. "If this guy is so desperate to kill us, then he would want to evade capture as long as possible. And an attack like this, well, heroes could track the source easily." He scoffed and waved a hand to the streets below. "It'd be like tracking a disease. You just compile all the infected together and work backwards towards the origin point. Take a hour, hour and half tops for the pros. Hell, they teach it in school." He pointed his index finger up. "The guy stays mobile, though? And makes multiple source points on top of that? Lot harder to pin him down. Best way to do that would be through car or train, and train would have stations full of people to help spread the infection. By the time the heroes would catch on it'd be too late. Already spread too far."

"That's a lot of speculation and theory," Hikari noted. "We don't have any actual proof he used the trains. Or that, if he did, that he's still on one."

"Yeah, but the only other place would be the school," the other twin continued. "Big building, compact, full of possessed pro heroes and students nobody would want to risk getting hurt. Plus he'd be waiting for us there. Makes sense that would be where he is." He sighed out loud. "The problem, is that we don't know if he personally sent that message or if he just instructed one of those affected by the Quirk to do it for him, nor do we know if his power is even capable of that or not. So we also don't know for a fact if he's there, either."

Hikari hummed. "Both seem plausible," he agreed. "Problem is we don't have any solid proof for either or."

"Not only that, but we don't have time to check both. UA, sure, but if he's on a train he could be anywhere. We'd need as much time as possible to search, and checking UA would eat into that."

It truly was a problematic situation. It was an unspoken agreement between the two that giving themselves up was off the table- they weren't too keen on dying. By what to do when they didn't know where the one responsible was? Part of Kyomu wanted to go and check UA anyways on the off chance that he was there. And even if he wasn't there, they were fast. Fast enough to check all the rail lines in this city and the surrounding cities, though? He wasn't too sure of their chance of success doing that.

He couldn't help but notice how frustrating the whole situation was, and had to wonder if normal heroes had to deal with this whenever they dealt with crafty villains. He couldn't fathom how they got up in the morning expecting this kind of headache.

"Hey, isn't there a train station, like, right next to UA? In fact, don't you take it?" Hikari's sudden question caused Kyomu's head to pick up and his jaw to slowly drop open. "You do take a train from your orphanage to school, right?"

"... No. No way. It couldn't be that easy." He couldn't resist smacking himself on the forehead. "Is it that easy?"

"I mean... close to UA. Train. Affected could tell him we showed up and they could just keep us captive as he strolls right off the train and walks to UA. Until then he could just hide there." It was such stupidly simply logic his brother was reciting that Kyomu felt like kicking himself for not thinking of it first. "It makes sense. And I don't have any better ideas about where he could be."

Kyomu's head thumped onto the back of the metal unit they were leaning on, followed by an exasperated breath leaving him. "I really don't believe he'd be so stupid to do something so simple, but I can't think of anywhere better to search. So sure. Let's go check the train."

* * *

"Goddammit, he was that stupid."

Going back to UA at their speeds had practically taken no time at all. They'd found the train station with Kyomu's directions and had hid on a nearby rooftop to observe the raised station right next to the raised tracks. Sure enough, there was a large concentration of affected individuals clustered around the bullet train and standing all around it. Like sentries, or guards. More dark forms and teal lights could be seen inside the train, indicating that more were in there.

By far the most damning piece of evidence that they found the right place was the extremely suspicious individual they could see at the conductor's car at the front, through the wide window. He was sitting on chair right next to the motionless, possessed conductor next to him. He had glowing teal eyes like everyone else, but he seemed much more animated compared to the rest. Shifting in his seat constantly, tapping his foot, a phone in his hand that he was periodically checking. It was behavior they had yet to see anybody else with those eyes display. So, in all likelihood, that was the root of the problem. The owner of the Quirk.

The relief Kyomu felt was overshadowed by the fact his brother had thought of this before he did.

"Oh baby, Occam's Razor wins again." Kyomu didn't even need to turn his head. He could _feel_ the smug grin on his twin's face as he was leaning over him and leering down at the train. "Is this what you hero people do all the time? 'Cause this is easy. Maybe I should hang up my villain cloak and take up a cape."

The darker-haired twin inhaled sharply. "The guy at the driver's car seems like the one. Not acting like the rest of them. What do you think the chances are it's him?"

"Oh, I'd say a solid ninety-five percent." The lighter-haired brother crouched down next to his twin to get a better view of the window. "Look at it. That train's guarded. That combined with the fact we predicted he'd be on a train-"

"I predicted he was on a train."

"- I still win, so whatever-" He shot a cheeky grin at Kyomu, who scoffed and rolled his eyes, "- combined with the fact that he's the only one that displays any real intelligence compared to the rest? There's almost no way it's not him. So what's the plan?"

"Plan, huh?" Kyomu intoned. "We really need a plan? I can see him. I can make a Void portal between his head and shoulders and cut right through his whole neck."

Hikari shook his head. "I'd like to at least talk to him before he dies. Find out the specifics of his Quirk. If he did this alone or if there're others. Things like that."

Kyomu nodded, and then hopped up to his feet from his prone position on the roof. "Fair enough. Tell you what: I'll go ask."

And without further words, he hopped right through a black portal, emerged from a second right above the train, fell down, and landed right on the window of the driver's car. If that wasn't enough to gain the attention of the man in the conductor's cabin, he knocked loudly on the glass, which immediately earned the man's attention.

"Hey!" Kyomu called through the glass. "You the guy responsible for all this?"

The man, dark-haired, light-skinned, and otherwise unremarkable aside from the eyes, was startled in his seat and actually dropped his phone. The startled face soon turned into a rage-filled glare that was directed right at Kyomu, who largely unaffected and just stared curiously at the man. He shouted something to the possessed conductor besides him, and the older man's hands started to fly over the train's controls.

And then it jostled.

"Seriously?" Kyomu muttered to himself. The glass itself was already slick, but when the train began to move forwards he felt himself begin to slide down it. He clicked his tongue as he fell off the glass and fell right into a Void portal, only to pop out of a second one right above the train. He silently landed on top of the moving train, and had to lower himself slightly to improve his balance as the train began to pick up in speed. A flash of light besides him signaled his brother appearing next to him.

"So, he have anything to say?" Hikari asked. The train continued to accelerate, and he stumbled slightly at the sudden loss of balance.

"Ah. Not really." He could already feel annoyance begin to bubble up inside of him as the train continued to accelerate. The fact he wasn't able to stop the train in time only increased said annoyance. "This is one of those mag-lev trains, Hikari. You know how fast they go?"

He scratched the side of his head. "Somewhere around the region of three-hundred kilometers, right?"

"Yeah, sure, three-hundred!" By now the brothers were forced to fully crouch down and brace themselves as much as possible due to the train's speed. "We're pretty strong physically speaking, but we have literally nothing to grab onto up here!" Kyomu was forced to yell this due to the wind roaring past their bodies, and even doing that he was barely able to hear himself. "We gotta stop this thing before we get flung off and this guy gets away!"

"Just cut the roof of the car with Void and let us in the train!" Hikari yelled back.

"Into the train car full of people that will explode if we go in there!?"

"Oh! Then I'm open to suggestions!"

 _"I was hoping you had ideas!"_ Kyomu thought. _"Alright, alright. I'm smart. I can figure this out."_ He really hoped he could figure this out, at the very least. Especially considering potentially everybody he knew and loads of civilians and heroes were depending on the two brothers to stop this madman. What was stopping one little train compared to that? _"Okay._ _Bullet trains. How do they work? Magnets. What can our Quirks do to magnets?"_ He bit his tongue. _"Practically nothing! Maybe if I use Void to cut out the bottom. The magnets that propel this thing are down there, right? Except I can't see them! Maybe Hikari could... no, we're already moving too fast! No way he could position himself in a way he could use Light to shoot near the bottom and melt the bottom!"_

His hair was whipping wildly around his fact, and for every second this continued it grew harder and harder to hold onto their positions. Their fingers were already starting to dig into the train's roof, and even so they could see themselves sliding backwards. They'd fall off entirely at this rate if they didn't hurry.

 _"Really wish Midoriya didn't get taken. Could use a hand right about now... Wait. Hand. Hands... hands!"_ His eyes lit up as a thought came to him. _"Could it... maybe! Let's go for it!"_

"Hikari!" he called out. "You remember months ago when you broke out of prison and fought Endeavor!? That hand thing you did!?"

Though his eyes were squinting due to the wind rushing past his face, Hikari managed to face his brother and give the best nod he could despite the wind pushing his head back. "Yeah!" he yelled. "What about it!?"

"Could you make a bunch and have them stop the train!? You could have the hands grab the train and halt it! Could you do that!?"

The Light user shook his head. "That technique doesn't have that good a range! I'd need a lot more free movement to pull something like that off!"

"Range, huh!?" Gritting his teeth, Kyomu slowly lifted up his left hand. "I'll give you all the range you need if that's the problem!"

He snapped his fingers, though due to the wind it was inaudible.

Twenty Void portals appeared in a circle all around Hikari. At the same time, twenty Void portal appeared alongside the entirety of the train, with ten at each side. Hikari didn't even need instruction from Kyomu to realize what his plan was, and the second he saw all those black portals, a grin came to his face. His red irises began to glow bright, and along with them a great, white light began to emanate from Hikari's back. Almost explosively, twenty prehensile, white arms made from pure light burst out from his back. Each hand shot through one of the Void portals and appeared through their respective portals alongside the train. The hands grew in size, and then zoomed forwards. Five hands from each side grabbed onto the train, while the remaining half of the hands grabbed onto the train tracks.

The train jolted, and a horrible grinding noise could be heard. Hikari's face was scrunched up from exertion, and there were even some times when he almost slipped off of the train, but Kyomu could feel it. The wind dragging against him was slowly becoming easier to resist, and the buildings flying past them were slowing down. But he could see Hikari was having a hard time of it, and when he looked back, he saw that his brother actually did slip and lose his grip.

Hikari gasped out, but he had only slipped back a few centimeters before another portal opened in front of him and a hand reached out to grab his wrist. His glowing, red eyes flicked over to Kyomu, who was only able to hold onto the train with one hand while using the other to hold his brother. Seeing this, Hikari's eyes glowed even bright and more light flared off of the arms coming from his back. The area around them began to darken as white wisps flowing in from the air all around them and into Hikari's body. The train slowed more and more, and it was only after thirty seconds of this did the train slow down sufficiently enough for the twins to stand on their feet.

"Kyomu! Get to the conductor!" Hikari screamed at him. "I can't keep this up forever so go and make him stop the train!"

He didn't need to be told twice. The hand released itself from gripping Hikari as Kyomu spun around and sprinted up the length of the train. When he reached the end, he jumped up through a portal that opened up in his path. He went through, and his momentum carried him through a second portal and straight towards the train's front window which, after it was washed over it a wave of black, ceased to exist. Kyomu flew into the cabin and right into the man who they had presumed was the owner of the Quirk, who was promptly slammed into the wall. Not giving him a moment of reprieve, Kyomu covered his hand in Void and pointed it right at the man's head, who groaned and slowly looked down at the teen glaring up at him.

"I'm willing to bet if you die the Quirk'll wear off," Kyomu hissed, "so turn the Quirk off and release everybody before I erase your head."

If it were any other time he would have acknowledged the pure fury the man's eyes were radiating at him. As it was, Kyomu's own anger was vastly overshadowing it, and after a brie stare-down between the two, the man reluctantly held his head. The glow left his teal eyes, and besides him the possessed conductor fell down onto his back. A quick glance from Kyomu revealed he was still breathing.

"Every single person is free?" When the man gave a confirmatory nod, Kyomu slammed his head into the floor and walked over to the train's control panel. He found the train's throttle and tore it down, and he breathed out a sigh of relief when he felt the train shut down.

That done, Kyomu turned around. The man had picked himself up off the ground and was in a sitting position and leaning against the back wall of the car. He was glowering up at Kyomu, but was otherwise silent. Kyomu just silently stared back and only moved when he heard a soft thump land besides him, and briefly turned to see Hikari standing next to him.

They both glanced at each other, and then both turned their eyes to the man. He continued to sit against the wall and looked back at them, but was otherwise still. More silence passed before Hikari decided to break it.

"So... this is the guy," he stated. "Doesn't look like much."

"They almost never do," Kyomu said. "A lot of people died just because you were trying to kill us. Mind explaining to us why?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "You're one to talk," he muttered in a bitter tone. "You're a murderer yourself."

"Pretty sure I never blew up random civilians or threatened to kill a class of teenagers. I'm not that jaded." Shaking his head, Kyomu rolled his eyes and leaned back onto the control console. "You don't even know how much trouble you've caused us. I don't even know how we're gonna explain to the police and heroes why you were gunning for us so hard."

At that, the man scoffed. "It doesn't matter. They won't remember a thing." His eyes briefly glowed teal as he held up a hand that briefly glowed a teal color. "My Quirk, Drill Sergeant, is the ability to directly control others. Like a queen ant controlling drone ants. It works by hijacking people's bodies and forcing them to produce pheromones that shut down most of their mental faculties and slaves them to my will. The explosions they're able to perform is a simple chemical reaction from said pheromones that can be triggered at will." He sighed and slumped back against the wall. "Because of the shock the pheromones take to my victims' systems, their memory gets damaged. About thirty to forty hours after they become affected. Nobody will remember a single thing."

"Pfft. Well, that's convenient," Kyomu noted. At the very least it saved the two brothers a world of trouble following the aftermath of this mess. Worst case they could feign ignorance to the event and pretend to be as clueless as everybody else would be. "And let me guess. You named your Quirk after a song?"

"What if I did?"

"I just know somebody who did the same thing. Everybody in my class teases him about it." Kyomu cleared his throat. "How about we start with names? I'm Shinka Kyomu. The guy glaring rather heatedly at you besides me is my brother, Shinka Hikari. What's your name?"

"... Hirose Akame."

The name hit the twins' ears. It meant nothing to them at first, but for Kyomu a ring of familiarity grew in him. He frowned and closed his eyes as he thought about the name, and after some seconds of searching his eyes flew open in realization, followed by a small shock to his system.

Besides him, Hikari had a similar reaction. "Hirose..." he said slowly. "The man who killed our parents was named Hirose. Wasn't that what you told me, Kyomu?"

"Hirose Kenji," he confirmed. "So you're related to him, then."

"I am. I was his brother." The man nodded. "And you are the one that killed him, Shinka Kyomu."

"You're not wrong. What I'm wondering is why you're pointing the finger at me and not my brother." He nodded to Hikari. "Officially he killed him. That's what we said."

At this, the man scoffed. He scoffed and let out an unsettling chuckle while mumbling incoherently to himself under his breath. "Oh, please. I know what the reports said." His head snapped up and the angry glare on his face was formed once more. "It doesn't take an idiot to figure out that your brother's Light Quirk doesn't cause absolute destruction like your Void does. Do you know there's pictures of that crater your power made when you destroyed your house? You can't tell me your brother, even with his screwed-up breeding, could have used Light like that." Frustrated, he balled his hand into a fist and hit the door besides him. "Everybody is so blind. Anybody with the wherewithal could dig far enough into those reports and find the truth if they really, truly wanted to. But why would anybody bother? The villain was caught, right? Why look any deeper? It would take somebody with a vested interest in the case to actually scrutinize the faults in all the facts and come to the true conclusion." He pointed at Kyomu. "You killed my brother." His finger shifted to Hikari. "You lied and covered it up, and in doing so ensured my brother never got true justice for his murder. You went behind bars while his murderer roamed free!"

Kyomu's eyes narrowed. "I don't think you get to preach about justice when you held I don't even know how many people hostage before blowing some up." He clicked his tongue. "And you'll have to forgive me for not feeling pity for the guy who stabbed our parents."

He sounded confident on the outside, and at the very least he could take comfort in that. What he couldn't take comfort in was the fact that some random man had managed to find the minuscule holes in their story and correctly concluded it to be false. This man, and nobody else. It made him wonder why it was that nobody else had discovered the truth if it really was this easy. Was it truly just because nobody was interested enough to look closely at it? After all these years? It was fairly likely, since they both corroborated the stories and nobody else was involved. There would have been no reason for anybody to dig any deeper. Anybody except this man in front of them who was directly involved just because of that villain.

From the way Hikari's posture shifted besides him, he could see that the thought was troubling to him as well. But Kyomu managed to tell himself that it was fine. They'd made it this far without anybody noticing, after all, even after Hikari's climb to a famous villain. The truth would likely remain buried forever as long as they kept up appearances. Because once Akame was dead, there really would be nobody left connected to that event besides them.

"You wouldn't get it," Akame mumbled to himself as his head lowered. "It's everybody's fault. Your fault. Your brother's fault. The man who sent Kenji on that damn mission."

Kyomu's eyebrow rose in interest. "It was my assumption that he invaded our home and stabbed our parents just because he wanted to rob us," he said. "That's what he had a history of doing. Was I incorrect?"

Akame shook his lowered head. "That was just a cover made for him by the man he worked under. The excuse he fell back on whenever he failed in his mission and was caught. There was no way he could have ever told anybody the real truth, so he just said he robbed heroes for their valuables. It was a more believable story, anyways."

"You keep mentioning a man," Hikari interrupted. "We thought that Kenji was acting on his own. You're saying that somebody told him to hit our home and hurt our parents?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

The eyes of both twins narrowed, and the temperature in the cabin seemed to drop some. "Tell us who he is," Kyomu demanded. "Who is he? Why did he do what he did? What did he have Kenji do to heroes if not rob them?"

At that, Akame laughed. It was a low, unsettling laugh that put the two brothers off and cause them to briefly glance at one another. "What? You wanna go after him? You'd die," Akame spat. "That thing isn't a man. It's a force of nature. It was a being so ridiculously powerful that it took another force of nature just to stop him, and even then only temporarily. If All Might couldn't defeat him for good, the hell chance do you two think you have?"

"A villain All Might couldn't defeat?" Kyomu questioned. "Since when?"

"Not surprised you don't know. He was a villain so dangerous his very existence was never revealed to the public. The strongest and smartest villain the world has ever seen. A man shrouded in so much mystery that nobody even knows his name, since he shares one with his Quirk." He looked up at the two boys' eyes, and they were shocked to see a twinge of fear in them. "This man's name is All For One."

To Kyomu, the name meant nothing, and he had even scoffed at how silly the name sounded. Hikari had the exact opposite reaction: his body froze completely, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped open as he stared down at Akame in disbelief. Kyomu seemed to notice the change in his brother's demeanor, though Hikari soon shook it off before it could be questioned.

"What... do you know about All For One?" Hikari asked, slowly.

"A bit more than most others as deep as could be in the underworld, since my brother was so close to him," Akame answered. "He isn't... naturally so skilled and intelligent at being the most dangerous villain, you see. The reason everybody who knows about him fears him besides his power and resources? It's his raw experience. He's been in the game longer than any other villain in the world- literally. And because of that, he has more skill than any other villain. Bar none."

Kyomu snorted. "Oh, come on. Guy sounds like a geezer. He can't be that tough."

"You're not getting what I'm saying." Akame shook his head at the teen's statement. "All For One has been around since near the beginning of the first emergence of Quirks. He may have even been in the first generation of Quirk holders. If he wasn't, he was certainly close to that."

"He's... immortal?" Hikari asked. "That... no, that can't be right." His white brows furrowed in confusion. "He has a warping Quirk. I've seen it. Useful, sure, but it couldn't possibly be that dangerous. Or make him immortal for that matter."

The darker-haired teen glanced at his twin. "Why do you know that?"

"That's because that warping ability you saw isn't his ability." Kyomu's question was completely ignored as the two twins focused on Akame as he continued to speak. "His Quirk, All For One, is the ability to steal others' Quirks." The brothers stilled at that. "That's right. And I do mean steal- his victims lose their Quirks completely to him. Some don't even survive, or they go comatose since the process of ripping their powers out is so traumatic. I've heard he can even transmit those Quirks to others if he chooses. That's how he got so powerful, you see. He stole useful abilities to make himself more powerful than any hero or villain who dared opposed him. At some point he stole a Quirk that granted him immortality so that he would never age and die; as such, he's centuries old. In exchange for their loyalty he gave allies and underlings powerful abilities he had no personal interest in. It was an ability that allowed him to create an untouchable empire. Nobody in the underworld could have hoped to oppose him." He sighed and turned his head to the side. "Then All Might came onto the scene. Around five years ago he finished tearing down All For One's whole empire. They had this big fight. Dunno about All Might, but All For One was gravely wounded. He survived, though. And afterwards he scraped together what little resources he had left to pursue other ventures. I don't know the specifics, but I do know he is the one responsible for creating those Nomu creatures."

"Nomu," Kyomu repeated. "The same Nomu monsters that the League of Villains use. The same League you're in, Hikari." His head turned to his brother. "You know him, don't you?"

Hikari didn't speak at first. He did lock eyes with his twin, and after a few intense moments of staring, he exhaled and slowly nodded his head. "He's Shigaraki's master," he confirmed. "He's also the League's benefactor. He maintains contact with us through a TV, though usually he just talks with Shigaraki. I've had very few conversations with the man myself, and I've only ever seen him in person once. I didn't know anything besides that." His arms tensed and his eyes hardened. "Kyomu, believe me. I did not know he had anything to do with Kenji."

"I know. I believe you." His words brought great relief to Hikari, though this was largely ignored by Kyomu as he turned back to Akame. "Alright. So where does Kenji and our parents factor into all this?"

"You've seen the Nomus. Abominations chock-full of Quirks he's stolen. He had to get those Quirks from somewhere," Akame explained. "He had multiple methods. Kenji was one of them. Kenji's Quirk, you see, was perfect for causing serious wounds that, if taken care of in a hospital, are generally treatable. All For One has plants in the hospital, with one doctor in particular."

Hikari nodded. "Yeah, I've seen him."

"Kenji's job was to break into the homes of heroes who had Quirks All For One was interested in. Wasn't really hard for him to find those Quirks since they can find them all in those hero catalogs, y'know? Kenji would break into a hero's house under the guise of a thief, stab them, rob them, and allow them to be taken to a hospital. Afterwards? Well, it's easy to slip a patient out when the doctor works for you. Patient goes under, is extracted so that All For One can take their Quirk, and then taken back to the hospital. The explanation always changed: their Quirk was lost due to the stress of the situation, or the blood loss caused them to go into a medically-induced coma, or they just couldn't save them in time and the patient died. All the while Kenji managed to slip away. The few times he did get caught he was eventually released. Usually wouldn't have happened since assaulting heroes is a grave crime, but All For One's influence runs deep. They never managed to keep him for long, and outside of those few slip-ups, nobody could ever have traced him to any of the other crimes he committed, so nobody could ever draw a pattern between them all and become suspicious. That was just _one_ of the ways All For One collected Quirks as he hid in the shadows and nursed the wounds All Might gave him."

"... And our parents?" Kyomu mumbled.

"All For One was interested in your mother's Quirk, Genetic Hardening, and wanted to apply it to his Nomu project. That's what Kenji told me, at least. It was supposed to be a simple job, something he'd done a hundred times before." His glare directed at the brothers turned downright venomous. "But then you killed him."

And it was there that all pieces fit together. How the League of Villains was so powerful despite the current hero society absolutely curbing any villain activity otherwise: the most powerful villain in the world was backing them up. The existence of the Nomu: it wasn't some secret government experiment or the League making superweapons like Midoriya predicted, it was that villain's power making them. Their parents hadn't been targeted due to random chance, but because that same exact villain ordered an underling to do so, only for Kyomu to have killed him by pure chance.

None of it was an accident. All of it was connected.

All of it was connected by a _single man_.

And the two brothers realized it instantly. The revelation was so shocking to them that their Quirks began to fluctuate around their bodies as they shook still with rage. Wisps of Void was whipping wildly around Kyomu's body while beams of Light would shine randomly off of Hikari's. Both of their eyes were wide and quivering, Hikari's red shining brightly while Kyomu's blue shined equally bright. If Akame noticed any of this, which was unlikely due to how noticeable the display was, he didn't show it. He continued talking.

"I pieced together what happened to him on the day of his death. Spent years coming to terms with it until you escaped from prison and you started to go to a hoity-toity hero school." Akame held a shuddering hand to his head. "I got curious and looked at it closer at your case. I realized the mistake the authorities made, the lies you told. I didn't want either of you to be free. I wanted justice for my brother." He began to shake in his own rage as the glow returned to his own teal eyes. "For months I planned-!"

 _Shlick!_

Akame stopped cold, and slowly turned his head down. A bright, gleaming white sword had run right through his chest. His breathing became choked as his head lifted to see the brothers staring coldly down at him.

"We heard what we needed. We don't care about the rest," Hikari intoned. Two more white sword appeared by his sides and shot forwards, embedding themselves in Akame's body. He stared in silence at the swords piercing through his body before he went limped and slumped over. No sooner had that happened then a black portal had opened up under him, and his body dropped into Void.

The black portal closed with a snap, and Kyomu looked over to his twin. "That was the first time you ever killed somebody, right?" he asked. "Are you-?"

"I'm beyond caring at this point," Hikari gruffly replied. "Besides. You were gonna kill him anyways."

He didn't argue the point, and the two brothers turned around and stepped out of the train. They jumped down onto the train tracks, with Kyomu briefly looking back at the train and the large hand-sized dents Hikari's hands had made along its sides, before the two looked ahead.

Afterwards, the energy seemed to leave both of their bodies and their forms went lax.

"He was responsible for everything," Kyomu whispered. "I always wondered why it was the prison system let Kenji off so easy despite his crimes. It wasn't because the hero system treats villains too leniently. It was because All For One was pulling strings behind the scenes. I should have realized something was off when you told me that death row was still a thing." He reached up and grabbed a tuft of his black hair in frustration. "The reason the crime rate was never moving despite my killings was because the heroes really _were_ on top of things the whole time. I never made a difference. It was just because of that one man." He tore his hand away and loudly exhaled. "There's no supervillains or anybody dangerous because the hero system actually works! The only reason All For One is an exception is because he's so old!" He stomped his foot down on the steel railing under him, and it dented easily under his foot. "It's all his fault! Everything! Our parents, all this League nonsense...! It was him all along...!"

Every single thing that had ever gone wrong in their lives was just because of one single villain. All For One. A man so influential that he'd inadvertently ruined their lives. He'd targeted their mothers, and by happenstance they'd been her sons. Kyomu was caught up with his Nomus because of the League, and the only reason Kyomu was even mixed in all of that was because he happened to be in Class 1-A! And for so long he thought that the system was too forgiving, case in point Hirose Kenji. But it wasn't the system. It was All For One. It was always All For One.

"All For One influenced Shigaraki to create the League of Villains. Shigaraki's his... successor..." Hikari mumbled at his side. "The man's body is failing him, Kyomu. I've seen it. Maybe he's, I dunno, grooming Shigaraki to replace him. Wouldn't surprise me if he was planning on giving that Quirk of his to him down the line, either." He remained silent and looked to the side at the city besides them. "Kyomu, even if All For One... we were still treated unfairly by the system-"

"Don't try to reverse this," Kyomu snapped. "We wouldn't have ever even been put in that situation if it wasn't All For One!"

"Regardless, Japan's hero system-"

"Oh my- who cares about Japan's- WE CAN JUST MOVE!"

The scream caused both twins to pause and stare at each other in shock. Hikari's mouth moved up and down in an attempt to form words, but he failed and simply stared blankly at his twin. Kyomu, Likewise, stared mutely at Hikari before they both sighed and hung their heads.

"What are we even doing with our lives?" Kyomu muttered. "My whole villain-killing crusade was a farce all along. It wasn't helping at all. And you only joined the League out of necessity. And even if you're still caught up on this country running on an outdated Quirk-handling system of laws, you can't seriously tell me you're willing to continue working with the League knowing that the man who ruined our lives is at the back of it all."

To his relief, Hikari shook his head. "No. I'm not. It doesn't sit right with me," he admitted, "and... well, they're the only chance I had at changing things. But with how things have been going recently, I have doubts that'll ever be realized. And if somebody like All For One is responsible for Shigaraki, and if he plans on carrying that man's ideal into the future if he breaks the hero society..." He grimaced and shook his head. "No. I don't want that. That kind of change isn't going to help anybody."

The realization was almost crushing for the both of them. Knowing that everything they had been working for was futile. Knowing one man was responsible for it all. So many lives gone, and other ruined. So much of their time wasted. All because of him.

"... Hey," Kyomu said, gaining Hikari's attention. "I wasn't kidding about that moving thing I said." At that, Hikari turned his head and blinked his red eyes at his twin. "You just... wanna give up?"

Hikari tilted his head in a questioning gesture. When Kyomu didn't react, he blinked in surprise. "You're serious." It wasn't a question.

"What's even left for us here?" Kyomu asked. "We've lost everything. There's nothing left for us. And you can't really restart a life here since all the heroes are after you, and most of the strongest heroes in the world live here, so why not just move?" he suggested. "We can, I dunno, move to South Korea or something. Go to Seoul maybe. Forget about Japan and its issues. Forget about villains. We can just start over and leave it all behind us." He stepped forwards and placed a hand on Hikari's shoulder, while at the same time looking into his eyes. "I... just want to be with my brother again. Like old times," he said. "And knowing what we know now... I just wanna go. So can we go?"

The white-haired teen stared back at Kyomu with his mouth agape. His eyes briefly flicked to the hand on his shoulder, and then back to his twin as he shook his head to try and find the right words. "Maybe I lost everything, but you didn't," he muttered. "You made new friends and connections. That orphanage you live at, your friends in the hero course at UA-"

"One way or another I was gonna have to leave that place," Kyomu countered. "And yeah, everybody in that class is... they are my friends," he confirmed, "but they'll... they'll be fine without me, Hikari. They're strong. Like, _stupid_ strong. Each and every one of them. Even Mineta."

"... That short guy with the sticky hair?"

"Yeah, I barely believe it, too. But it's the truth." Kyomu removed his hand from his shoulder and stepped back as he looked up at the sky. "They'll all make amazing heroes one day, so they can take care of things. And I'll miss them, but... but we just can't stay here if we really do this. The fact that I can trust them to make Japan a better place when we couldn't is part of the reason I'm even entertaining the idea of leaving."

"What about your hero dream?"

"I only wanted to be a hero to have a easier time killing villains. Now that that's off the table, it's kind of a moot point. The dream is dead." His head dropped to his brother. "So? What do you want to do?"

* * *

Why did he have to make it sound like he was getting the deciding vote here? And why, oh why, did he have to make it all sound so enticing?

Hikari sighed out loud. He wasn't expecting to receive this kind of emotional baggage. He'd went on this little adventure thinking they'd bag the villain and everything would go back to normal afterwards. He didn't expect to be given information so jarring it shook apart everything he ever believed in while also shining light on the fact all his work with the villains had been for nothing.

So where did that all leave him?

 _"I should never have been imprisoned like that. I wanted to change things so that situations like that never happened again, but I'm a villain. So I thought the only way to even start change was to kill All Might. I only thought of that because Shigaraki convinced me,"_ he thought. _"He was probably telling the truth, but... knowing Shigaraki is using the teachings of somebody like All For One? I have grievances with society, but at the very least its a_ _stable, working society. Is change even needed? Surely not the kind of change Shigaraki wants. And who knows? Maybe one day there will be the kind of change I want. Better change done legally."_ He sighed and ran a hand down his face. _"And Kyomu's right. These are issues only present in Japan. Shigaraki was my only shot at fixing things. That's out now, so... so what? I'm not staying with them. No way I can. So escape to another country?"_ He clicked his tongue in thought. _"Neither of us speak Korean, but we could learn. We're broke, but with our powers, we could maybe fix that. Rob a few stores or something, then hitch a ride on a ship to Korea. We'll be illegal aliens and criminals, but... well, people worse than us have made it out of even worse situations. Could we actually make that work?"_

He thought so. It wouldn't be easy, but they could definitely make it work with a bit of planning. It was either that or keep running from the heroes in Japan all on his own until he was caught. All things considered, it was really his only option.

And then there was Kyomu. He would be there with him. He wouldn't have to do it alone, and even better he'd finally be reunited his his brother on a permanent basis. It was the only thing he wanted, really. Because running around town and chasing this mind-controlling villain all day with him? It was some of the most fun Hikari had ever had with his brother. Maybe them going on the run together would actually be fun, if not challenging. But no matter what, he wouldn't have to be alone. Kyomu would be there with him.

So, why not? If Kyomu was willing, why not just give up and leave it all behind? The more he thought about it, the more he realized there was little reason to say no.

"Alright, Kyomu." Hikari nodded his head. "Let's leave it all behind. Japan and its heroes. All this villain business. Forget about it. We're done."

His brother looked at him in surprise at first, but a smile did flash across his features. It was a smile that both brothers shared as they realized together that, yes, they were going to leave it all behind and search for a better life away from all of this. Together.

"Great. That's really, truly great, Hikari." The smile slowly faded as a scowl creased across Kyomu's brows. "One little thing, first. I want to tie up one last loose end." He lifted his right hand and clenched his fist. "All For One. I want to kill him before we leave."

Hikari couldn't help bitterly chuckle. He almost expected it. "Seriously? After the whole 'I give up killing villains' speech, man? It's been, like, a minute at best. I didn't realize you picked up an addiction to killing villains."

Kyomu wryly grinned. "You'll have to forgive me for getting hooked so easily, Hikari. It was quite a cathartic hobby of mine. Those kinds of habits die hard. But after him I'll go cold turkey. Promise." He wiped the grin off his face. "In all seriousness, he's responsible for all of this. The only reason we're even having this conversation is because of him. I can't turn away from everything knowing that the man responsible for our parents' deaths is out there. Especially knowing what he is." He bit his lower lip. "He's too powerful for the heroes. And if All Might couldn't take him down... I don't want to leave my hero friends at his mercy. Or Shigaraki's mercy if he really is his successor." He shook his head. "No. We're nipping that problem in the bud right now. We're killing All For One to make sure he doesn't ruin any more lives and to stop his Nomu project. Then we're killing off the League of Villains. We'll leave after."

The reasoning of "I also want to avenge our parents" was left unsaid and hidden behind Kyomu's logic. In truth, the desire to kill him just because he was directly responsible for their parents being killed was readily apparent, as both could see it in each other's eyes. But Kyomu raised a point in that All For One was a unique case of a villain too powerful for heroes just because he'd managed to live so long with such a powerful Quirk. He'd only managed to grow so much because he'd started in an age where heroes weren't nearly as powerful as they were today. The standards were different; supervillains like that simply couldn't be created.

So yes. Hikari had no problem with killing All For One. His problem was with killing Shigaraki.

"I don't want to kill Shigaraki." His statement caused Kyomu to look at him in confusion. "Kyomu, you don't understand. Shigaraki's like us."

His black-haired twin had opened his mouth to exclaim his outrage, but closed it as Hikari's statement. He then breathed deeply and asked, "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"He accidentally killed his family with his Quirk. Told me himself." _That_ certainly caused Kyomu to stay silent and pay attention. "He disintegrates things by touching something with all five of his fingers. Contact is all he needs; he doesn't have conscious control over it. He had to train himself not to touch things with all his fingers so he doesn't turn everything around him to dust. And when he was a kid and his Quirk manifested, he just... accidentally dusted his whole family." He sighed out loud. "He was like you. Didn't know what his power did and accidentally killed his family because of it. Because how is a four-year-old supposed to work out a power like that as his parents and sister and grandparents are disintegrating right in front of him? And just like us, nobody ever helped him. Nobody but All For One when he found him. He's only like this because he was manipulated by that villain, that _thing_ , and I... every time I look at him, Kyomu, I see us."

"Shigaraki's still a villain," Kyomu pointed out.

"So are we," Hikari countered, "and half the reason All For One made it so far is because of that Quirk of his, right? As long as that Quirk dies with him, it's fine. He hasn't passed it on yet, even if he's planning to. Shigaraki won't be an issue to the other heroes if left alive."

Kyomu pursed his lips, and he could see that his brother was mulling it over in his head. After groaning and rubbing at the bridge of his nose, he came to a conclusion. "You know what? Fine. I don't really care about Shigaraki, so how about this: I go kill All For One. You deal with Shigaraki. How's that?"

The white-haired teen shook his head. "No way. I'm killing All For One."

At that, Kyomu rounded on his brother and stepped up to him with anger apparent on his face. "What are you talking about? I'm the one with the Quirk suited for killing! And this isn't some run-of-the-mill garden variety villain we're talking about, either. Oh, no, it's some souped-up mega ultra Evil-with-a-capital-E legitimate _super_ villain not even All Might could defeat, and you think I'm gonna let you-"

"His body is weakened. And my Quirk's just as good as yours," Hikari countered. "Besides. Even if we both lost parents to him, I lost eleven years of my life in prison because of him. So I'm calling dibs."

"Then we'll just take him together!" Kyomu shouted. "It'll be easier, we both get the satisfaction, and-"

Hikari shook his head. "Nope. Won't work. Somebody needs to deal with Shigaraki while the other deals with All For One. I'm confident in our abilities, but if the League interferes during the fight, it'll get too dicey."

Kyomu held his tongue. The logic was sound, and it was apparent he got that. Based on the conflicted look on his face, he didn't seem to like it, though. "So, what, you want me to deal with him and his League?"

"You'd have an easier time stalling them with Void," Hikari explained. "Just hold them back, would you? And I'd like for you to actually talk with Shigaraki so you can see what I mean. In the meantime I'll deal with All For One." He flashed a cheeky grin. "Also, I'm the only one that actually knows where he is. You don't."

He rolled his eyes, but begrudgingly conceded to his point. "Alright, fine. I'll deal with the League. You deal with All For One. And then we leave. Got any idea when we'll do this?"

"The League's spread out at the moment, but sometimes Shigaraki will gather us all together for meetings. When he announces the next meeting I'll tell you about it. We'll do it then," Hikari answered. "In the meantime, you can... I dunno, say your goodbyes to everyone at your school or something? Try to get some closure before we leave?"

Kyomu nodded. "Yeah. That works. I need time to sort through this, anyways." He turned his back to his brother. "Looks like everyone affected by Akame's Quirk is still unconscious. If he's to be believe, nobody will remember today, so none of this should lead back to us. There'll be confusion, but otherwise it's gonna be fine. I'm gonna head back to the class and pretend to be just as clueless as everyone else. With any luck they'll still be asleep." He turned his head halfway to get a single eye on his brother. "Until next time, Hikari. Keep me posted."

The quick appearance of a black portal that Kyomu had hopped through, and he was gone. All that was left was Hikari standing by his lonesome on the train tracks, with the agreement made by the two brother still playing over in his mind. The agreement to abandon it all and run away together. He could still hardly believe they'd planned it.

And now all they had to do was kill the world's most dangerous villain before starting a new life.

Tired, red eyes lifted up to the sky. "Man. What a day."


	27. Chapter 27

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 27- Farewells without goodbyes**

* * *

It was pretty much absolute panic after the incident with Hirose Akame, as the two brothers had expected. He didn't know how it went on Hikari's end, but Kyomu assumed it had went well enough. As for him, Kyomu had gone to his class, pretended to sleep, and when they all began to wake up he acted just as groggy and confused as they were. The following panic was eventually controlled by the heroes and police, fortunately, and though nobody had answers as to what happened except the two twins, at least things were peaceful. The damage from the incident was being fixed and an ongoing investigation was being conducted towards why everybody's memories of that day had disappeared and why some had died in horrific explosions.

But on the upside the Shinkas were in the clear due to a lack of evidence towards them, so there was that.

Kyomu woke up on Friday morning more lethargic than usual. The events of that train, and all the uncomfortable revelations that came along with it, still stuck heavily to him. What stuck even more heavily was that, in the days following, Hikari had shortly come into contact with him and told him that the League of Villains were set to have a meeting on Sunday morning. So that was when they were going to commit to their decision.

Sunday morning. Two days. Which was a real shame, because he and his classmates were supposed to have moved into their new dorms on Wednesday.

Oh, well. Couldn't have everything.

So Kyomu had been slow in putting on his uniform and gathering his things in his backpack. But he'd still go, for however little time he had left. Even if he saw it as being pointless at this point. Since he was never going to see any of them again, he at least wanted to see them one last time.

Sighing, he closed his room's door behind him, only wincing slightly at the small squeak it gave as it shut. Some children ran past him, giggling among themselves as they brushed him by. He stared forlornly after them with a small smile on his face before he turned around and began walking.

"Kyomu, Kyomu!" He'd only made it through one of the halls before one of the children ran up to him. She was jumping up and down on her feet and shoving a scrap of paper in Kyomu's face in an attempt to make him look at it.

He hummed and took the paper from her hands to look at it. From the pale human shape wearing a large amount of black, he could tell right away it was him. The black circles drawn all around the figure were another giveaway. It was otherwise a pretty poor caricature of him, but compared to his own artistic skill is may as well have been a masterpiece.

"Hey, Hina, leave big bro alone! He needs to get going soon!" A larger child slipped in-between them, took the paper out from Kyomu's hands, gave it to the girl who'd given it to him, and shooed her away. The older child then sighed and turned to Kyomu with an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry about that, Kyomu. I know you're really busy with hero school and everything."

"It's fine, Ren." Kyomu stared after the quickly retreating girl, and then looked back to Ren. "Where're your two friends? You guys hang around each other all the time."

"Pfft. Still sleeping." He rolled his eyes. "You know how they are. They sleep almost as much as you do." Ren's head stayed pointed down the hallway, and then he turned to Kyomu. "Hey, you're gonna be leaving soon, right?"

There was a very awkward answer to that otherwise innocent question. Kyomu managed to avoid any irregular reaction and just gave a casual shrug. "Yeah, the dorms are getting set up next week. So-"

"So there's no need to worry, correct?" Both boys' heads turned to see an aged woman step out from a room besides them. "Ren, I believe it was your turn this week to go help prepare breakfast?"

Ren's eyes widened. "Oh, man! Uh, yeah! Right on it!"

The child waved a quick goodbye to Kyomu before he turned his body around and bolted down the hallway. The old lady chuckled at the sight while Kyomu silently stared after him before they turned to face each other.

"So," she began, "it's that soon, then?"

Kyomu had to hold in the frown that was threatening to show on his face. "Pretty soon," he confirmed. He rubbed the back on his head and look up at the walls. "Can't say I'll miss the place, Mizo," he said. "I swear, this building was never once up to code."

"We've always struggled, yes, but we always managed to stay under that particular line. I remember you helped out quite a bit over the years with the repairs," Mizo noted. "Except that darn door of yours. Always squeaks. Never did figure out why."

"It's a real mystery," Kyomu huffed. "Real talk, though. I never, ah, never really, y'know, thanked ya. For everything. Taking care of me and... ahem." He coughed into his fist. "Last chance for you to say anything on the matter 'cause otherwise I'll be leaving soon so-"

"You don't need to say anything, Kyomu. I know admitting these kinds of things is difficult for you. The knowledge that you appreciate it, even if you don't admit it, is enough." She tilted her head and smiled. "Besides, you can't tell me you won't want to visit the children at least once when you eventually become a hero. They all really look up to you, you know. Every single one."

"Yeah. I know." Everybody there looked up to him. Because he was the oldest one. Because he was on the hero path despite his past. Because he was so strong. How much of that admiration was he going to shatter when he ran away? "I actually am kind of running late, you know."

That was a lie. If anything, he had time to spare. But he didn't want to be here saying nothing but lies to Mizo.

"Well, don't let me keep you," Mizo said as he waved the younger teen off. "Go, go. We'll be here for as long as you need us."

"I know. I gotta go. By, Mizo." He turned around and continued to move through the orphanage. Children kept waving at him and shouting at him, and he'd give them all his own small greetings as he continued to move forwards.

He'd never admit that he would miss this buildings, because frankly, it was so close to the line of being condemned that it wasn't even funny. The children and Mizo were another matter, but he was going to have to leave them regardless of what he'd chosen. He did find himself glancing at everybody he passed as he left more than once, however, and even looked back at the orphanage once he stepped outside the gate.

 _"I'll miss this place,"_ he decided, _"but this is too important. I wonder how disappointed everybody will be in me."_ He turned around and made his way to the train station. _"Ah, well. Sorry I'm letting you down, everybody."_

* * *

The apartment they were hiding out in at the moment wasn't really anything that special. Small and out of the way. Nestled between a lot of buildings and for the most part was inconspicuous. In a way it was much like the bar they used to live in.

It also had a balcony. There wasn't really that great a view since it was pressed against other buildings, but Hikari didn't really have any better places to sit down and just think.

Despite having had a few days to think about current circumstances, he was still reeling. All For One and the truth about their parents. Kyomu's decision to just cut their losses as they were and just give everything up. The fact he'd gone along with it without very much thought put into it. Maybe it was a hasty decision, but he had yet to regret the choice.

Even if he wasn't a hundred percent confident.

 _"Stay? Leave? Leave. We have the leave. That's what we decided. All For One's gotta die."_ After some mental debate he'd come to the conclusion that, yes, they'd made a plan and were going to stick with it. It was the loosest plan in the world, but it was theirs. He understood his brother's desire of wanting to kill All For One- he wanted to kill the man, too, not only for what he did to their parents but for what he's done to who knew how many people. For what he was. For the fact that he was _still_ doing all this.

He didn't even know if he could blame the hero society. Yes, it was their job to stop him. Yes, they evidently tried to stop him if he had a fight with All Might and barely survived considering he literally lost his face from what he saw. Maybe he was just too strong or crafty for heroes because he was so old and powerful.

Well, blameless or not, the two brothers had decided that they were going to deal with him because the heroes just couldn't. Was that wrong of them? Probably. The hero society would surely say it was wrong, but that same society had failed them so much that Hikari didn't think it deserved to be considered at this point. Part of the reason he even entertained Kyomu's idea of just leaving Japan was because of that. Japan's hero society was Japan's hero society. And, frankly, he didn't feel like fixing it anymore. He'd all but lost faith in his own method. Kyomu, similarly, lost faith in his method.

But them actually leaving the country, and he could see right now that it would be a headache and a half to figure out, was for the future. Right now Hikari's focus was on All For One, because he'd been the one to go and decide for the both of them that he'd be the one to deliver the killing blow. Half because he worried for Kyomu, and half because, _technically speaking_ , it was his fault he was in prison for over a decade.

 _"Does he know that it was Kyomu's Quirk that erased our home?"_ Hikari silently wondered. _"Akame was right about the fact that anybody who looked hard enough could see the truth. If Kenji was his agent, then that would be reason enough to look at the case. Geez, the fact I'm so close to Shigaraki would be enough to warrant a close look. So does he know?"_ The hand grabbing the arm of the chair he was sitting in tightened. _"We seldom ever spoke, but I have to wonder if he always knew he was talking to an innocent person whose life was ruined because of him. Maybe he didn't? Maybe he never bothered and he really does think I did it. I just don't know._

 _"What about his power?"_ Another point of worry was that he didn't know what his power was. More specifically, he didn't know what powers he currently had. _"The power to steal Quirks through direct contact. Pretty scary,"_ he admitted. _"Gonna have to keep my distance. Gonna have to prepare for anything because he literally could have anything. Does he even have a limit to how many powers he can stockpile? Agh, man..."_

He couldn't really say he was hasty since there isn't much he could do to prepare even he tried to. He didn't know what his powers were besides that warping Quirk he displayed. Really, he didn't have any plan of action besides storm the building the kill him.

He'd figure it out in the heat of the moment, he decided.

"And here you are again, acting all forlorn-like." Hikari didn't bother to turn his head when he heard Shigaraki's voice behind him, though he did give him a small nod when he walked into view and sat down in a chair right next to his own. His hand-covered face turned to face his own. "You look even more sulky than usual, Shinka."

Shigaraki. All For One's successor, apparently. Hikari could see it, considering how much he openly revered that man. Really, he treated him less like a master and more like a father. The man who could disintegrate anything just by touching it.

The only man who helped Hikari when he escaped prison.

Four months in this League and he still had to wonder if Shigaraki helped him out purely because he was interested, if it was some sort of twisted camaraderie between villains, or if he was just really hoping to get a powerful member for his League. On reflection, most likely more of the latter two, though over time he had to wonder. Shigaraki was always withdrawn with everybody with three exceptions: himself, All For One, and Kurogiri.

All For One was self-explanatory. Kurogiri... well, Hikari still didn't know much about that man, or even what he looked like under all that black mist. The fact he was close and actively sought companionship with Hikari, though, was surprising. He didn't do it with any other member of the League. Just him and the other two. He had to wonder why. Was he just doing it to ensure he stayed with the League, or with it out of genuine friendship?

And even more, if All For One knew the truth about the twins, which Hikari was still unsure of, did he tell Shigaraki? Did Shigaraki figure it out himself? Was that why he was always prying into his past? Was it just curiosity? Was he testing to see if he would tell the truth or not? Did he even care if he did know? Did he believe the lie Hikari told?

Honestly, all these questions were enough to make him sick. The anxiety didn't come just from the possibilities, but the fact he'd been living with these possibilities so long and had been blind to them until very recently. The feeling was the equivalent to having walked in a minefield for hours and only learned it was a minefield five minutes ago. A deep pit in his stomach mixed with worry churning through his whole body.

But, he couldn't show any of that. He didn't want to appear suspicious at all as to make sure his and Kyomu's plan went off without a hitch. So he buried all his worries and put on a nonchalant face as he shrugged at Shigaraki.

"I'm bored. I'm really bored," he answered. "We haven't really been doing much lately."

"Ah, I see. You get antsy real easy, you know." Shigaraki slung one leg over the other and leaned back in the recliner chair. "Don't worry. We'll get more members and make more operations soon. It'll all work out."

 _"Always the same with you, isn't it, Shigaraki? You barely ever learn. It's the 'barely' part that's probably your only redeeming quality in the villain business."_ Hikari hummed and looked up at the sky. "Surprised you haven't kicked me out of the League at this point," he admitted, "especially considering how much of a failure I've been."

"Huh? Failure?" Shigaraki tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Since when? You've been great."

"Great?" Hikari repeated. "Shigaraki, we haven't had _one_ single successful operation. Not one, and I've been with you since the beginning at USJ. I've participated in all of them. They all failed." He slumped back in his chair. "Really makes a guy feel inadequate."

It wasn't true at all. At this point, he couldn't care less about the League's failures since he would be leaving them soon. But burying his anxiety was more mentally draining than he would like, so he might as well try to glean something out of Shigaraki.

Good thing he'd been lying most of his life.

"I admit that we haven't really had the best track record. We've had ups and downs-"

"Downs, Shigaraki. We've had downs."

"Hey, now. We've made some progress." Shigaraki took a deep breath to begin again. "But you shouldn't blame yourself. I blame myself, mostly." His knees curled up to his body and his hands flopped to the side. "If anybody should be feeling inadequate, it should be me. It seems like after every failure we grow bigger and better only to fall harder the next time around. It gets so frustrating that half the time I just don't know what to do with myself." He let out a shuddering breath and shook his head. "But there's... people there. To make sure I don't fall to pieces like everything else in my life. Master encourages me to do better. Kurogiri supports me. You..." He brushed some of his light-blue hair out of his face so that Hikari could see a crimson eye peering at him from between the fingers gripping his face. "You've always been there to fail right along with me. Not matter what, you never left. I really admire that, you know."

This was beginning to go in a direction Hikari didn't see it going in. He didn't know if he liked it. "Is that so?" he airily replied. "It's not that impressive. I mean, I didn't have anywhere to go. Leaving would practically be suicide."

"Well, yeah, but you're a smart guy. You could have figured something out." His hands raised and fingers interlocked, save for the thumbs. "But I really do appreciate you. The fact you've stayed despite everything. Your strength. The fact that... you're not so bad to be around." His hands unclasped and he reached for the hand mask on his face. "Everybody else in the League are great, too. More than acquaintances. Comrades. But you're something more, especially after everything."

He pulled the hand off from his face and fully turned his head to Hikari's whose eyes had widened slightly at the sight. A young face with chapped features was looking back at him, and on his mouth was a smile. A small smile, to be sure. Incredibly minuscule, actually. But it was there.

Hikari couldn't help but be hurt by the smile, though the surprise managed to cover it.

"I... trust you, Hikari. Really. I do." He placed the hand gently to his side and leaned his head on the back of his chair. "Our League will grow. We'll take steps and bring this whole hero society crumbling down. We already have good footing. We just need to keep moving forwards." He shifted in the chair to look at Hikari. "We've been having trouble with that," he admitted. "But it comes with the territory. We're a party of low-level players up against a whole society of max-level players. It's understandable that we won't see much success. But with every failure we'll learn and be better, and work our way up to those high levels." He looked up at the sky. "We'll get there. One day. Master believes in me and my League. And you'll be right there besides me. I know it."

And there it was. He didn't know. He couldn't have, after having made a speech like that. Because Hikari could hear it in his voice- the raw trust and emotion he was putting in there. And for somebody like Shigaraki, that said a lot, because Hikari had never heard him in that tone before. He was being sincere. Which meant he truly did value him as a friend. Truly believed he would be true to him.

Him, who was days away from betraying him.

It put yet another layer of anxiety inside of his heart that he didn't want to feel. He blamed All For One for everything, but what about Shigaraki? A villain, yes. Someone who had made his own choices; he couldn't dispute that. He also couldn't dispute he was in the exact same circumstance as him, and was influenced by the exact same man Hikari detested so much. All For One.

For some reason it always lead back to All For One.

Out of everybody he ever met, Shigaraki was probably the only one besides his brother who could emphasize with him and his situation, even if he didn't know the truth. And in his own introverted way, he had acted like a friend over the months as well as a comrade and commander. The fact he opened up so much to Hikari only went to prove his loyalty to the white-haired teen. And it hurt, knowing he was going to break that trust.

He immediately gave up on the idea of trying to convince Shigaraki to leave All For One. He was dead-set on this path of his. The path to being the strongest villain. The path of that man's chosen descendant. There wasn't any convincing out of that kind of determination. So their future was set. Hikari would leave the League and betray Shigaraki, who, at the moment, probably trusted him as much as All For One. He didn't like this feeling. Lying was one thing; he never actively hurt people with the lies he told. This was something entirely different.

The more he thought on it, the more it hurt, and he was glad that it was Kyomu that would be dealing with him directly on the matter. He didn't think he had the mental fortitude necessary to so much as see Shigaraki's expression when he learned the truth, even if his face was covered by a hand at the moment.

"Low-level, huh?" Hikari murmured. "You managed to go a whole week without making a videogame reference, Shigaraki. I finally started to understand you."

"I haven't had as much time lately. But that's not a habit I'm gonna be breaking anytime soon." A playful smirk graced Shigaraki's chapped lips. "And between the two of us, you don't need to be so formal. In front of anybody else, sure, but not when it's just us. So just feel free to call me Tomura, Hikari."

Hikari smiled on the outside. He withered on the inside. "Sure thing, Tomura."

* * *

The costume hit the bottom of the gym locker with a soft _flump_ , and Kyomu couldn't help but stare at that silly black costume he'd designed months ago.

He never liked it, in truth. It was a mandatory thing he conceived out of necessity, so it was never as extravagant as the rest of his classmates' suits. He'd never improved or upgraded it like most everybody else did. He'd never even maintained it: the once modestly-tattered coat was rife with tears, rips, and holes now, and the rest of the suit was marred with scratches and scuff marks. He'd barely ever worn it, too. USJ and his abysmal internship. Training and his first final through it all, it... kind of grew on him.

But he couldn't take it with him. It just wasn't worth the hassle it would take to try and sneak it out of school, and he'd be potentially jeopardizing everything. So it would be staying here until he abandoned UA, and afterwards... well, he didn't know what would happen with the suit. Maybe taken by the police and put in an evidence locker somewhere, or decommissioned and recycled for raw materials to make other costumes. Maybe they would forget about it and it would stay in the locker until the locker's new owner opened it and saw the suit. Maybe they'd hang it somewhere to remember him.

He snorted. No way they'd actually keep the thing.

"I didn't really think about any parting words," he muttered to the costume, "so this is the best you're gonna get. Thanks for not being completely useless, super suit. You weren't so bad."

He shut the locker.

"Great training today, Shinka!" Kyomu was jolted from his thoughts and turned around. Midoriya, who was shirtless due to having just put his costume away, was standing right behind him with a big grin on his face. "That dual-team attack you did with Aoyama where you used your Void portals to redirect his laser beam was amazing!"

"Yeah, well, y'know. It was Frenchy's idea. Can't take too much credit." He let out a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his neck. "But you're right. Training was... it was fun."

Fun. He was telling the truth when he was saying that. Training at UA was never challenging, not for him. He never grew alongside everybody else as a result. He'd only ever grown on his own merit. But he'd had fun, for sure. Using his powers along with everybody else, showing off... not having to fear other people get mad at him for showing off. It was always a blast.

To think he'd be abandoning it all forever in a couple of days. It was only really hitting him now that he thought about it, and now that he knew it was going away forever he realized just how much he'd come to enjoy it. The thought caused a frown to form on his face.

"Shinka?" Noticing the frown, a worried Midoriya stepped closer to him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine." He waved off Midoriya's concern and tried to avoid eye contact with the smaller teen. "I'm just fine."

How in the world was Midoriya going to react to his abrupt departure? He supposed he would never find out, as he wasn't going to stick around and see, but he imagined it wasn't going to be very pretty. Midoriya was on friendly standing with the whole class, but he interacted with Kyomu more than most. The only other two people he even talked with as much was Uraraka and Iida. He was one of the people who believed so much in Kyomu becoming a great hero.

But it was fine. He'd get over it. Become a great hero along with everybody else. Better that he do it sooner than later so they could forget faster.

There was, however, one last curiosity he wanted to get out of the way before he left. It wasn't all that important, but at the same time the burning question left an itch at the back of his mind that he desperately wanted to scratch. The itch of just what in the world Midoriya's Quirk was. Seeing as they were alone in the locker room, now seemed like a good time.

He just really wanted to know.

"You know, back in the forest when I was walking around with Bakugo, right before the attack, he told me a pretty crazy story," Kyomu began. He leaned his back on the lockers while crossing his arm and gave Midoriya a scrutinizing glare. "He told me that you told him a crazy story about how All Might gave you his own Quirk and that you never actually developed one." He noted how Midoriya froze up. "He doesn't actually believe it and thinks you lied to him. I mean, I don't blame him. Transferring Quirks? That's just outlandish. You just developed your Quirk really late is all. Happens all the time." The other teen relaxed. "I just find it odd how you so conveniently developed that Quirk right before you took the UA entrance exam. Because back then you made it sound like you applied without a Quirk, which alone is crazy, but even crazier is how your power popped up at such an opportune time. Weird, huh?"

It was such a small inconsistency. Small enough for Kyomu not to be that bugged by it, but just big enough for him not to forget about it. Ever since he'd heard it he'd kept that in the back of his mind, and Bakugo's story of transferring Quirks, while unbelievable, was interesting enough that he bothered to remember it. Just in case.

Then he found out a villain with the ability to steal Quirks existed, and suddenly the ability to transfer a power didn't seem so impossible anymore. And the more he thought on how that possibility was reality, the more it made sense. Why he developed that Quirk when he did. Why his strength was so similar to All Might's. Why All Might tried to hide the fact he paid special attention to Midoriya during class and training, because he did. It was subtle, but a few times Kyomu had noticed. The pieces just seemed to fit together too well to ignore.

"W-well, uh..." Midoriya was suddenly looking really meek, and his interest was placed solely on the linoleum tiles beneath their feet. "I didn't, well, you... why, why do you ask?"

Kyomu shrugged. "I was just wondering. Really. I'm not gonna tell anybody if it's the truth or anything. I just wanna know."

Upon hearing this, Midoriya picked his head up with a relieved look in his eyes and a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face. Kyomu raised an eyebrow in response, but remained silent and allowed the teen with dark green hair to get his words out.

"It's... well... I'm not supposed to really say, but you already know about All Might's condition. He trusts you, and I trust you, so..." He swallowed and nodded his head. "Yes, it's true. The Quirk I have is All Might's. He was looking for a successor since his body is failing him due to his wounds, and he gave it to me since I was Quirkless."

Silence reigned between the two after the confession. Midorya looked up at Kyomu with bated breath as he waited for a response. Kyomu, for his part, stared down at him with a blank expression before he shrugged his body off the lockers.

"'Kay, then," he mumbled. "That's wild, Mido."

"... Eh?" Midoriya blinked his green eyes as the taller teen stepped besides him. "Shinka, aren't you... gonna ask anything else?"

He shook his head, which only further baffled Midoriya. "Nah, I'm good," he said. "I wasn't lying when I said I was just curious. And I guess I can understand you lying if All Might himself asked you to keep it a secret. I'm sure the story behind that power and the relationship you two share is really interesting, but..." He sighed and shook his head. "Well, I said it before. Not really my business. And I got my own stuff to deal with."

"Like your brother?"

A sharp inhale from Kyomu. "I meant my hero studies and the fact we're all moving here next week, but sure, that too," he grumbled. He nearly panicked when he mentioned his brother, but he had to remind himself that he didn't remember the situation with Akame and the conversation he'd had with Hikari. He didn't ask him about his parents and grow suspicions about their past. He wasn't questioning the validity of their lie. He still thought his brother a villain. "What more is there to say about my brother, Midoriya? 'Cause I got nothin'."

"I guess so," he agreed. "But he is one of the reasons you became a hero, right?"

Nope. "Sure, I guess he was a deciding factor. It was more because I just wanted to and had a good Quirk. Kinda like everybody else in class. I'm not too special in that regard."

Lie after lie after lie. His only solace was in the fact it would all be over soon.

"But hey! We've been over this already. And right now I just wanna get some food after such an intense training session. So come one."

He wrapped an arm around Midoriya's shoulder and directed him to the door leading out of the locker room. Midoriya had quickly squirmed out of his grip and reminded him he was shirtless, to which Kyomu chuckled and said he would wait for him in the cafeteria. He stepped out of the locker room and closed the door behind him, and quickly the smile dropped off his face.

"Goodbye, Midoriya. You were a really amazing guy. I'm sure you'll make an ever more amazing hero."

* * *

"But, I mean, all good things have to end eventually, you know? I wasn't too... friendly towards you at the beginning. My irrational paranoia got the best of me, and it took some time for me to realize the mistake in never trusting you. But after months of being served by you and your kind here at this school, I've come to realize that you all are alright. Maybe we could have even eventually become friends."

The robot who served the students lunch gave him a gormless stare from behind the lunch counter. "Would you like extra with that?" the robotic voice inquired to him.

Kyomu chuckled. "You too, lunch bot. You too." He took his lunch tray and brought it over to the table where the rest of his class were sitting and eating. It was the routine he'd developed over the months of coming here: get food, sit down at his spot at the table, prod at food and pretend to eat, listen to the conversations going on around him, and occasionally participate.

So that's what he did, if only to respect the small ritual he'd made for himself. Unfortunately, his nerves were too high due to coming events to actually make any progress on his food, so he just absentmindedly poked at a slice of watermelon with a plastic fork as he looked at the classmates that sat all around him.

Sato was trying to goad Sero into trying what was most assuredly a homemade pastry. Sen was in a similar position where Aoyama was trying to get him to try some type of cheese he had, which caused Kyomu to do a double take. Koda was off to the side eating shyly. Yaoyorozu, Tsuyu, Ashido, and Hagakure were having a rather animated chat with Ojiro eating besides them. Mineta was sneaking glances at them while pretending to eat his own food. Kaminari was sharing a music player with Jiro and were both tapping at the table with the beat of the music. Kirishima was attempting to goad Bakugo into a arm-wrestling match, which caused the latter to yell at him. Tokoyami, Shoji, and Todoroki were eating in solemn silence off to the side. Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka were having their own conversation.

With the exception of the cheese thing- Kyomu couldn't make out what the deal with that was- this was the norm for 1-A's table. And he wouldn't be ashamed to admit that he was rather comfortable with the environment sitting at this table created. He did his best to enjoy what little time he had left with it, and so made little effort on eating his food.

"Hey, Shinka! Settle and argument for us!" His head turned away from his food to look the the side at Ashido, who was holding out a small, magenta-colored fabric case to him. The other girls who she was talking to were looking at him as well. "I got this new case for my writing stuff, but the other girls are saying it's too small! What do you think?"

"Small, huh?" He gestured for the case, and she gave it to him. A Void portal was surreptitiously placed inside the case, to which Kyomu proceeded to seemingly place his whole arm in the case. "I dunno. Seems pretty spacious to me. Girls're crazy." He pulled his arm out and tossed the case back to the bewildered girl. "If anything, you're more likely to lose something in that thing, Ashido."

Her dazed eyes flicked from him to the case, and the a burst of mirthful laughter escaped her. "Pfft! Yeah, right!" She shook her head and pocketed the case. "Nice joke, though. I'll give it an eight out of ten."

"Only an eight?" Kyomu incredulously replied. "C'mon. That kills with the kids at the orphanage. You gotta give me at least a nine."

"You're lucky I even gave you an eight. I had half a mind to deduct points for unfair Quirk usage."

Kyomu puffed out a breath of air, but otherwise gave the pink girl a smile as he bit into his watermelon. Off to the side he saw Iida giving him a small thumbs-up, which Kyomu reciprocated with a thumbs-up of his own. He slowly melded into the conversations all around him afterwards, and nearing the end of the lunch period he'd managed to speak with everybody and had even been goaded into that arm-wrestling competition with Bakugo and Kirishima. Of course he'd won.

It'd been great. The problem was that the knowledge that it would be his last kept him from truly enjoying it.

* * *

The clock on the wall clicked to the next hour, and the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. His classmates around him began packing their things away, and a few conversations began to pick up all around Kyomu as he crammed his books into his bag. His soon to be useless books, he realized as he shoved the last book into his bag.

 _"I've got half a mind to just chuck these in Void to save me the trouble,"_ he thought to himself. _"I'm never gonna need these textbooks again. Eh. Whatever. I'll carry them just 'cause."_

"Shinka?" A tap on his shoulder brought the teen's attention behind him. A mismatched pair of eyes were staring at him with a black pen in the owner's hand. "Your pen," Todoroki explained. "It rolled off your desk and you never retrieved it."

"Oh. Thanks." Kyomu took the pen and haphazardly tossed it into the bag with the rest of his school stuff.

"It's no issue." While the Void user continued to stuff his backpack, Todoroki continued to stare blankly at him. A few moments passed, and he took a deep breath before speaking again. "Are you well?" he asked. "For the past few days you've been... off, Shinka. Especially today."

Kyomu froze, and then slowly looked back at Todoroki. _"I half expected somebody to notice something wrong, but him?"_ he thought. _"I would have thought it'd have been Sen or Midoriya. Ah, well."_

He cleared his throat and stood up fully while placing the bag on the seat behind him. He admittedly hadn't been watching his demeanor all that closely, mostly due to a lack of not caring. He really didn't think appearing a bit off for a few days would jeopardize anything, and worse case he would say just that. That he was having an off day. It happened to everybody, and while his genes may have been a bit different than most, he was still human.

"I dunno. Guess I'm just having an off day or something," he answered. "Don't really know why. Can't be the flu- I don't get sick. I guess I'm still reeling from that whole... whatever that was from a few days ago. I mean, we all lost a whole day of memories and a bunch of people exploded. It's just weird."

"I can see where you're coming from," Todoroki agreed. "I suppose that's understandable. It was a fairly jarring experience. What are your thoughts on what happened?"

Kyomu shrugged. "Who knows? I sure don't. Villains're crazy, man. I stopped trying to understand them years ago." He pointed at the other teen. "How about you? Doing alright?"

"Fine enough. I've already packed all my things for the dorms we'll be moving into soon. Said my goodbye's to my family." He took a pause to clear his throat. "Otherwise, there's the provisional license exams coming up."

Oh, right. Provisional licenses. With everything that had been happening he'd completely forgotten about them. Not surprising, seeing as they were now completely irrelevant to him. "The test making you anxious?" Kyomu asked to continue the conversation. "I hear the success rate isn't too hot."

"I wouldn't say anxious, but nevertheless I'm still uneasy. The training should take my mind off it. If that doesn't, the homework will."

At that, the black-haired teen have a sympathetic sigh. "I hear that," he mumbled. "Welp. Seeya around, Todoroki. It's been an experience."

The teen gave him a cordial nod and headed out with the other students. Kyomu himself messed around with his backpack for a minute more before he finally slung it over his shoulder and began to walk out. He saw Aizawa sitting at his desk with some papers in front of him, and the two briefly locked eyes. The teacher gave him what could best be described as an approving blink, and Kyomu reciprocated with a blink of his own as he exited through the exceedingly large doors.

He passed some classmates, and they each gave their own waved and goodbyes. Kyomu continued to walk through the emptying school, weaving through the crowds and making his way down the stairs to the front entrance of the school. None of them really gave him any noteworthy looks, as, outside from those in his own class, he didn't really interact with anybody in the school.

Anybody except for the spiky blonde student that brushed past him.

"You only got lucky today, Shinka," Bakugo gruffly stated as he passed him. "It won't go the same way next time."

"Whatever you say, Bakugo, whatever you say. It's been real. See you when I see you."

At hearing that, Bakugo briefly stopped and turned his head around. His eyebrows were creased in a curious manner, but he shrugged it off almost instantly and continued walking forwards.

An uneasy breath left Kyomu as soon as Bakugo was out of sight. Thank goodness he was so competitive. He might have seen right through Kyomu otherwise, like Todoroki almost had. He was just glad all this lying would be done with soon.

"That guy's always heated, huh, man?" He wasn't even startled when the arm came and propped itself over his shoulder as its owner leaned next to him. "How're you doing?"

Shrugging Sen off of him, Kyomu gave a shrug. "Fine as could be," he coolly answered as they walked forwards. "Gonna be leaving soon, so that's, you know, up there. In the big plan. My plan, that is." He coughed to the side. "You?"

"Ah, you know, pretty much the same. Mom helped me pack some of my stuff, so when we're moving in we'll- hey, All Might."

"Young Eikyo! Young Shinka!" Right as they turned the corner, they saw their number one hero teacher walking out from the teacher's lounge, upon which he saw the two boys and began waving at them. "Off to your homes after a long day of schooling, I presume?"

"You know it." Kyomu would have thought he'd wanted some final words with All Might like he'd had with some other people since they'd confided in each other so much, but, surprisingly, he just couldn't think of much to say. So he merely turned his back to the hero, gave a small wave upon his retreat, and continued walking with his friend. "Anyways, catch you later."

All Might had given his own boisterous farewell, and the three split off, with the two teens going towards the train station and All Might going to wherever he needed to go. The pair of students chatted along the way about the normal happenings, such as school work and training, though it was mostly Sen doing the talking while Kyomu just silently listened while chiming in every once in awhile to keep the conversation going. This carried them all the way to the train station, where they awaited their train.

Sen was whistling a jaunty tune while rocking back and forth on his feet. Kyomu, meanwhile, was leaning on a nearby pillar while gloomily staring at Sen. He elicited a listless sigh and looked down to his feet.

"Hey, Mr. Melancholy, you alright over there?" Sen called, causing Kyomu to look up. He saw a pair of orange eyes above a vibrant smile looking over at him. "You look off, man. Everything alright?"

"Yeah. Training today was a bit rough is all."

"Oh, yeah. Was it that one sparring hour where Bakugo almost got you?"

"Maybe," Kyomu lied, and then pushed off the pillar to stand next to Sen. "I'm surprised they got the train up and running so soon after the incident. It wasn't even a week ago that happened. It's kind of crazy."

Sen's response was an unsurprised hum. "Eh, not really," he said. "Lotta people depend on public transportation, dude. I'd be surprised if they dragged their feet getting that thing back up and running. It's the train."

"It's hard to argued with that logic," Kyomu agreed. "Do you remember when we met, Sen?"

"Yeah, it was at the entrance exam and you were staring at my chrome dome in absolute wonder."

Rolling his eyes, Kyomu turned his head away with a sheepish grin n his face. "It wasn't absolute wonder. Wasn't even astonishment. I was wondering what in the world could be so shiny. I honestly thought that the sun had moved on me and that I was staring straight at it. The only wonderful thing about it is that I didn't go blind from seeing it."

"Keep talking, man. One day I'll find out some weird body quirk you have so I can make fun of it forever until one of us dies." Upon saying this, Sen cleared his throat. "Not, like, you know, a Quirk-quirk," he clarified, "I mean, you know, quirk as in something weird. Y'know. Original definition of quirk. The normal kind of quirk."

Kyomu snorted, but otherwise remained silent. Now that he thought of it, other than Bakugo, he never told anybody about his unique biology. It just was something that never came up. A part of him lamented that fact, but, upon reflection, he realized that it didn't really matter all that much in the end.

And really, he didn't want to be thinking about such inconsequential things at the moment. He just wanted to enjoy what little time he had left with Sen.

"Anyways, going back to your question, yeah, I remember," Sen continued. "Gotta say, we've had a pretty wild ride ever since then, Kyomu. Wild trainin' times, a couple villain attacks here and there. And it's only been four months! Four months we've been going to this school, and so much as happened. And we got three years here."

"Yeah," Kyomu mumbled. "I never thought I'd make any friends here. But everybody in that class warmed up to me, and I became everybody's friend." He looked to the side at Sen, who locked eyes with him. "But you were there with me since the very beginning. And you stuck with me, even through all the... unconventional parts. Like the villain things. You even lost a hand protecting me."

"I'm not really sure it counts considering I got it reattached," the bald teen pointed out. "But I see what you mean. We've had a hell of a time." He clicked his tongue and looked down the track. "You know... looking at the trend, we're likely to have even greater and wilder times down the line. Be a shame to have all the fun end in three years' time. I know we've been playing around with the idea for a while now, but I wanna ask seriously now." He turned back to Kyomu. "Wanna work together when we become heroes?" he asked. "We can sign up at the same agency, and maybe down the line we can make our own."

An exhale from Kyomu. "I dunno, man. I think it's a bit early for that kind of thing. And our powers aren't really that compatible. We only won against that ice villain 'cause we had a spacesuit sitting right there." He looked away from Sen. "Midoriya'd be a good match for you," he suggested. "He punches hard. You absorb hard hits. You both get along well enough. Geez, your colors even compliment one another."

"Yeah, I'm not really sure green and orange go together that well."

"C'mon, man, I'm bein' serious here," Kyomu chuckled through a forced grin. "And anyways, it's super early for that kind of thing anyways. And I'm not really thinking of doing partners."

Sen nodded. "Yeah, I get it, man. No worries. But hey. Maybe one day."

Kyomu couldn't help but frown at that, though his head was at an angle that Sen couldn't see it. He wouldn't have been opposed to working with Sen as a professional hero sometime in the future. He really wouldn't have. But the path he'd chosen just couldn't let it be. And while he accepted that, it still hurt just the tiniest amount.

After all, at the end of the day, aside from his brother, Sen was the best friend he'd ever had. And he could already see their first train coming towards them from the tracks. Pretty soon it would stop and Sen would depart for his own home

"Well, regardless of our future, I've... rather enjoyed our time together, Sen." The train had stopped in front of them, and the doors opened to accept passengers. "You were the greatest friend I could have asked for. I'm thankful."

"Uh... yeah, man." Sen's hairless eye ridge rose up in confusion as he passed Kyomu and stepped onto the train. He maintained this confused glare as he turned around to face the other teen. "Is there something the matter?"

Kyomu shook his head. "No. Nothing's the matter," he said. "I'll see you later, Sen. Goodbye."

"Sure, Kyomu. Goodbye." The doors to the train closed right after they said their farewells, and the train slowly sped away. Kyomu stared after the train, sighed, and opened a black portal in front of him before stepping through it.

* * *

Sunday arrived, and Kyomu uncharacteristically got up earlier than anybody else in the orphanage. He slinked out of the building, made his way past the courtyard, and slipped out through the front gate. He didn't need to go very far to see his brother leaning against the orphanage's brick perimeter wall with his arms crossed and head tilted in his direction. His face was set in a neutral expression and his eyes hardened in anticipation, but otherwise seemed to be waiting for his brother. Kyomu gave him a stiff nod, and Hikari pushed up off the wall to face his brother.

"So. It's time?" Kyomu asked.

"Now's the time," Hikari confirmed, and then reached into the pocket of his white hoodie to take out a slip of paper. "The meeting's being held in an old warehouse a city over from here. Address is on the paper," he instructed as he passed his brother the paper. "We're a bit early, so just go there and wait. Meanwhile I'm gonna head over to All For One's building and take care of him. I'll find you afterwards and we'll figure out what to do after."

Kyomu gave a stiff nod, read the paper, and placed it in his pocket. "So we're really doing it, then," he muttered. "Today's the day-"

"- We throw everything away," Hikari finished. "Good luck, Kyomu."

"Same, Hikari. Same."

No more words were passed between the two as they disappeared in bolts of black and white going in opposite directions.


	28. Chapter 28

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 28- White**

* * *

"I guess we should be thankful for the fact there are so many of these places for us to meet up at. I'd be more thankful if they all weren't so far from where I live." This statement was enunciated by the slamming of a van door, followed by a pale face with patches of dark, dead skin peering around the van towards the backside to see others piling out. "There's gotta be an easier way to do this."

Four bodies piled out of the back of the van, with a fifth, green-scaled person exiting the driver seat that had been next to him. From the four at the back, one, a young man covered in hands, turned towards the patchwork man and let out an annoyed huff as he scratched absentmindedly at his neck.

"This is a necessary precaution, Dabi," he reasoned. "If we don't spread out our meeting points and vary up the times, we'll leave more and more clues for the heroes to stumble upon and find us again. That's how we lost the bar, remember?"

Dabi rolled his eyes. "I guess." He glanced to the side at Spinner, who was standing passively next to him, and then at the group of villains. "Where are Twice, Kurogiri, and Shinka?" he asked. "Thought this was a meeting for the whole team."

"Yeah, I miss Lighty," the youngest of the group complained with a pout on her lips. "Where'd he go?"

Shigaraki rose a hand to silence the teenage girl, and then addressed Dabi. "Kurogiri and Twice had to go on an errand, which is why we had to take the van. And Shinka said he'd just meet us here. He should already be inside, actually."

There was a huff of indignation from Spinner. "What, the pale bastard too good to ride along with us now?" the lizard-man grumbled.

"I'll have to agree with our scaled friend here," the masked one of the group commented. There was the sound of a small whir as he raised his arm to adjust the hat on top of his circular face covering, and then continued as soon as it was righted. "Our young Shinka has been rather... withdrawn from the League as of late. Do you not agree, Shigaraki?"

"No. I don't," he said. "He's just been really pent-up. We haven't really done a lot, and he's eager to get to work on the next job is all. Give him some credit- he's your senior, after all."

"That's saying a lot, seeing as he's barely any older than Toga," Magna muttered under their breath as they readjusted the large, iron bar on their shoulder. "But I can see where you're coming from. Any clue for when Twice and Kurogiri will get here?"

"Should be any second now." As Shigaraki said this, there was a slight warbling in the air, and the empty space next to them was slowly filled with a mass of black and purple mist. "Ah, speak of the devil. Here they are right now."

The dark mist filled out into a large mass nearly as big as the van. From that mass walked out a tall, muscular man dressed from head-to-toe in white and navy spandex. The mass condensed right as he left the portal and shrunk into a suit, where it filled out into a bipedal form. Two solid, shining yellow eyes lit up around the mass where the mist man's head was, and a mist-covered hand went up to adjust the tie on his suit before he stepped forwards. Kurogiri gave Shigaraki a curt nod, and the younger man returned the nod before turning to address the man in spandex.

"So," he began, "Twice, Kurogiri. How'd your little assignment go?"

There was a large sigh from Twice, and he hung his spandex-covered head. "Bad news, boss," he began, before his head picked right up and his hand made a thumbs-up. "Mission super successful!"

Shigaraki elicited a "tsk" sound. "That bad, huh?" he muttered.

"None of the candidates you sent us to review were all too willing to join the League of Villains," Kurogiri supplied. "The League, in its... less than successful ventures, hasn't nearly raised enough credibility to convince anybody to join us. That combined with the overbearing hero society over all of our heads only makes everybody even more hesitant." His eyes glanced towards Twice, and then back to Shigaraki. "And I fear Twice's speech impediment made negotiations more difficult than they needed to be."

Twice's head spun towards Kurogiri in shock. "What speech impediment!? I'm a piping-hot mess!"

Aside from Mr. Compress and Magna, there was not a single person in the League who had enough tact to keep in a loud sigh. This only served to make Twice more confused.

"And that, in essence, explains why we were unsuccessful in recruiting more members for the League," Kurogiri finished off. "I fear your plan of bolstering our ranks is too poor a plan moving forwards considering our results. Perhaps it is time we reevaluated our strategy."

"You might be right," Shigaraki agreed. "That's what this meeting is all about." He nodded towards the warehouse. "C'mon, Shinka's inside. Once we get everybody together we'll talk about what we're gonna do."

At that, the group of eight made their way through the door leading into the warehouse and casually began walking in. The inside was what the group had come to expect from these places whenever they visited one: Quiet, crowded in abandoned boxes, ceiling-high shelves, and containers, and dark. Not so dark, as there was sunlight filtering in from the windows along the walls and roof, but without electric lighting it still made for a rather melancholy setting.

Though, considering the ones that were currently using this warehouse were quite used to this kind of environment, they didn't quite mind.

The group continued walking in silence until they came to the middle of the warehouse, which was largely cleaned out and barren save, strangely enough, a large, mildew-ridden bar counter with two moth-eaten stools in front of it. One stool was empty, while a teenage form with white hair was slumped over in the other stool. That wasn't what caused the group to pause, as they had expected to find one person in here.

What they didn't expect was for that person to be clad completely in black clothing. For as long as every single League member had known Hikari, he had always worn exclusively white, which was why it gave them all pause when they saw the teenage for in black shoes, pants, and a shirt.

The group looked at each other with uncertain eyes, and it was Dabi who decided to take the initiative and clear his throat. "Er, Shinka?" he called over. "You finally taking my advice on wearing darker colors or what?"

In response, the teenage body in the stood stirred and sat straight upwards. Some tense moments of silence passed, and the form turned their upper body to face the group. There were multiple gasps of confusion when they saw that, while it was the same face they all knew, the eyes were a dark blue as opposed to a crimson color. And to even further their bewilderment, a pale hand reached up, grabbed the white hair on their head, and tore the wig away. Locks of pure, black hair fell down to the teen's shoulders as he continued to apathetically glare at the villains through the bangs of his hair.

"So. The League of Villains," said Kyomu. "About time you got here. Let's talk."

* * *

Hikari was fairly confident towers weren't supposed to be this foreboding. And by all rights, there shouldn't be anything foreboding around to make him uneasy considering the scenery. A bright, sunny morning in a decent, clean part of the city with bustling cars in the streets behind him. All For One's tower, while admittedly dark and tall compared to the surrounding buildings, didn't really stand out in comparison. And yet, standing right in front of the entrance to that tower, he couldn't help but feel perturbed by the mere sight of it.

But he had a job to do. He had to kill the man who resided at the top of that tower- and maybe pay a visit to that doctor, too. Just to confirm a suspicion he had about that man. But first he would actually have to get inside.

He walked up to the entrance and pushed against the glass door. To his surprise, he found that the door was unlocked and swayed open for him. He cautiously stepped into the main, bare lobby of the building and looked towards the stairs, and then the elevator. He had no idea what the actual layout was, and he didn't feel at all comfortable with taking the elevator. So stairs it was, even if he didn't know where he was going other than up.

It was a good thing that it was early in the morning and that Kyomu was going to ensure that he had all the time in the world to pull this off. So essentially all day was the frame of time he was looking at. Hopefully this wouldn't take more than an hour or two.

None of this knowledge helped with the fact that every single step he took up piled more anxiety on his shoulders, but for the life of him Hikari just couldn't figure out why that was.

* * *

He didn't really know what to expect with his little ruse there. Some shouts of surprise, maybe, or perhaps even a few flaring of Quirks. For the most part, the League of Villains were just standing stock still and staring at him in silent shock, though with the mask Mr. Compress had and the hand on Shigaraki's face, as well as the mist covering Kurogiri and Twice's spandex, he couldn't quite tell their expressions. Everybody else just had varying amounts of surprise.

"I won't front with you all. This isn't even a wig." He tossed the white mass that had been on his head away and shook his fingers off. "I just tore that off a mop I found lying around."

The only reason he'd even done that was to lure them in closer before revealing himself, but he'd made the mistake of neglecting the color of his clothes. Not the worst mistake he'd ever made, at any rate.

It was Shigaraki who made the first move by stepping ahead of the pack and raising his hands up in a calm manner, as if to tell everybody he would handle this. Shortly after, he lowered his hands and faced Kyomu directly. He could just barely make out the crimson eyes past the blue-grey hair waving in his face and through the gaps of that hand, but what little he could see were narrowed in thought.

"Shinka Kyomu," he said at last in a quiet, subdued voice. "You're Hikari's brother."

Kyomu flinched. He wasn't so sure he felt comfortable hearing his brother's first name come out of that high, ragged voice Shigaraki had, but he ignored it in lieu of the current situation. "That I am," he confirmed. "You're Shigaraki. We've never spoken or even interacted with one another before. In fact, the only other time I've ever seen you in person was all the way back at the USJ when you stepped out of that warp gate." He leaned back on the decayed bar and propped his elbows on the counter. "We've some things to discuss. Get over here; your flunkies can just stay over there."

If he had any reaction to the flunky remark, he didn't show it, though he did see Dabi in the back roll his eyes. That was the one with the Cremation Quirk, if he remembered correctly. Hikari had went through the trouble of scribbling some details about each of them on the paper he'd given with the address to the warehouse, and he'd made some effort to memorize it. They were all powers he could deal with for the most part, except for Kurogiri. That warp power of his might prove troublesome if things turned violent, and he strongly envisioned things turning violent. He couldn't let him warp them all away, especially to All For One. He'd have to be careful.

Shigaraki took a tentative step forwards, and when Kyomu remained in his stationary position, his footsteps became more confident until he made it to the second stool right next to him. He slowly sat down, body straight and facing Kyomu, who turned his head to look at the other. He didn't say anything at first, perhaps in an effort to think of the right words to say, before he took in a breath and began speaking.

"I guess it would be too good to assume you're here to join the League," he stated.

"You got that right." Kyomu gave a nod.

Shigaraki hummed, took a look around the warehouse, and then back looked back to Kyomu. "Hikari's not here," he added.

"That is also correct."

"What exactly is going on here, Shinka Kyomu? Why are you approaching us when you've made it clear not only now, but in the past, that you have no intention of joining us? And where is your brother?"

"Good questions. Let me return them with one of my own."

"You shouldn't answer questions with a question, you-"

"Hey. Shigaraki." Kyomu interrupted him and held up his index finger, which silenced the other. He craned his neck to the side in irritation, but otherwise he allowed the younger teen to speak. "Just humor me here, alright?" He lowered his hand to the bar. "Hikari told me you killed your whole family because of your Quirk. Because you were so young and it was so destructive. Is that right?"

The older male tilted his head to the side, almost in confusion, but nodded his head nonetheless. "For the most part that's true."

A pale finger tapped the bar. "Partly, huh?"

"It was something in my past I tried to forget, and eventually I did forget. Hikari... helped me remember," Shigaraki confessed. "Him being there. Talking to me. The pieces I had forgotten had slowly begun to come back to me until we had that talk. It was at the mall, if you remember that day."

"Right before the camp, yeah."

"Mh." The pale-haired man gave a confirmatory nod. "We talked about his concerns, debated a bit. Everything had slowly come back to me, and, because I so dearly wanted to know why it was he murdered your parents, I told him my story. Of how I almost accidentally killed my whole family because I didn't understand my own power. And in return, he described to me his own circumstances, and I was astounded with how similar they were to my own. It's almost like we were meant to be brought together by a common purpose. It really is wonderful how this society made the villains that are going to destroy it."

That was about the gist of what Hikari had told him of Shigaraki's past. Of why it was he was here, and in truth, Kyomu could see the similarities. And he couldn't deny that at least one of the brothers had ended up a villain just because of that situation that was so much similar to Shigaraki's. But there was something scratching at the back of his mind that he wanted to clear up. "Almost accidentally?" he repeated. "How do you almost accidentally kill your family?"

Shigaraki paused, as if just realizing he'd been caught in a contradiction within his story, but he merely let off an airy laugh. "It was almost completely an accident," he confessed. "I truly didn't know what my power did until it was too late. By the time I realized my touch disintegrated everything, almost everybody was dead except my father." He paused, and he ran two fingers along the hand gripping his face. "I killed him on purpose right after."

Kyomu's fingers drummed against the counter once, and he let out a slow breath. "So you killed him," he said. "And lied to Hikari about it."

"I'm not even sure if it was on purpose," Shigaraki admitted with a shrug. "That man... I didn't like him. All those negative feelings I had and all the shock and terror I was experiencing in that moment, all those feelings mixing together... it was almost instinctual when I pressed my hand against his face. I didn't even think about it. It's because of that I didn't tell him. It seemed too inconsequential."

"Mm." Kyomu nodded and clicked his teeth. A bit of anger boiled within him, but was quickly simmered by the disappointment he felt by just looking at Shigaraki and the hands clamped to his form. "Well, I had a little sympathy for you. I lost it just now." He silently turned his head away from both him and the group silently watching them. "You have more in common with my brother than you think. You're both liars." He paused to wait for a response, but when none came, he continued. "The reason my brother isn't here is because he's killing All For One right now." His eyes shifted to the group. "Kurogiri, if you so much as twitch I'll use Void to cut you in half and kill you. I mean it."

He wasn't joking at all; the monotone in his voice was reason enough for them to take it seriously. The temperature in the room had certainly lowered a few degrees from his threat. Ironic, considering that he'd seen blue flames briefly lick Dabi's fingers. He along with everybody else had grown tense at his proclamation.

Shigaraki,for his part, had grown stiff. When he turned his head back to the man, he could actually see confusion running rampant through his eyes, and his fingers twitched erratically for a few moments. He took a deep breath to steady himself, and in a barely-level voice, asked, "Why in the world would your brother betray the League and do something like that?"

"Because All For One killed our parents."

 _That_ certainly gave Shigaraki pause. He stiffened immediately, and his eyes grew even wider as he processed the words Kyomu spoke. He seemed so jarred that he actually sputtered in an attempt to form a response, and only managed to make a quiet "What?" in regards to what he had said. "What... are you talking about...?"

"We only just found out. Our mother had a Quirk that All For One was interested in. He sent somebody to our house to wound and send her to the hospital so his doctor friend could help him steal it. We saw that man he sent stab our parents, and, like you, my Quirk awoke and went haywire," Kyomu calmly explained. "Void killed both that man and our parents. Hikari lied and said he did it to save me from going to prison, and I went along with it. I'm the real villain."

Silence. He supposed he couldn't he so surprised, and as he watched the people in front of him digest the information he saw looks of realization flash across their faces. That yes, Hikari had betrayed them. And from the conflicted looks he saw in some of their eyes, he could see that in some sense, they understood the why of it. He couldn't see Shigaraki's expression, as he'd lowered his head, but he could see him visibly begin to shake at the revelation.

"So..." Began Dabi, who remained in his spot next to the other villains. His voice had gone noticeably quieter. "If he's there, why are you here?"

"I'm just here to give you his resignation," Kyomu explained. "And also to stop you all from going to try and help All For One. He quite understandably has an intense hatred for the man that ruined our lives, and he doesn't want to associate himself with the League of Villains anymore since he's at the back of you all."

Even more unsettling silence. It went unsaid that the threat he'd given Kurogiri applied to the rest of them as well. Some had looks of disbelief, while others had cast nervous glances at the prosthetic arm Mr. Compress wore and realized that, at some level, he was serious with his threat and would at the very least mutilate them with his Quirk.

It was a bluff, of course. At Hikari's request, no less. He'd technically only stated he wanted Shigaraki spared, but he didn't know how his brother would react if he killed everyone else. He already had a problem with him killing, and Kyomu hadn't had the forethought at the time to ask him if he could or not. So if they resisted, he'd incapacitate them. Maybe remove some limbs if he was given trouble. But they'd live. Mostly.

"You really hate us villains, don't you, Shinka Kyomu?" Shigaraki's voice had gone course and quiet, as if in a stupor. He'd lifted his head up, and out of the corner of his eyes Kyomu could see one crimson eye looking at him from the side between the fingers clamped on his head. There was a certain glossy sheen to that eye that made the teen confused, but otherwise he listened. "Hating villains for ruining your life. I can understand that. And I can understand Hikari's reason for wanting to join us and change society even more if they threw an innocent child away in prison for over a decade. Which is why I find it so confusing to believe he would betray us. He has no reason to betray us."

Kyomu blinked, and confusion blossomed on his face. "Did you not hear a single word I just said?"

"I don't believe you." Confusion turned into full-blown bewilderment. "I don't believe Hikari would do something like this. He wouldn't be so foolish as to try and kill Sensei. He wouldn't throw away his chance to change society for the better. He hates All Might almost as much as I do for maintaining a broken status quo." He shook his head. "You know what I think? I think his whiny brother who would rather blame every villain in the world and not himself for taking his parents away is lashing out blindly at every villain he can get to. I think you tricked all of us into this meeting to kill us just to feel better about yourself, and poor Hikari is back at the apartment all confused and wondering where we are. You're lying."

He felt his jaw drop open, and he almost couldn't believe his ears. Even some of the other villains were looking at their leader in quiet disbelief, as if they couldn't believe he would spout something so profound. And Kyomu could believe it, because he couldn't believe Shigaraki would say something like that. That he would actually believe Kyomu would have the means of pulling something so elaborate like this without his brother knowing, or why he would even bother talking with all of them if his goal was just to kill them.

But then he saw it. The one, single tear that escaped his visible eyelid only to be absorbed into the material covering the hand on his face. He was completely serious. He really, truly didn't believe Hikari would do something like this. It took all he had not to bark out a cynical laugh at the sight.

"You're a moron," Kyomu realized in wonder. "I don't even mean that as a scathing insult. You're legitimately stupid. You actually..." This time he did laugh, though it came out as a low, bitter chuckle. "Shigaraki. I couldn't be more serious. Hikari has betrayed the League of Villains to kill the man responsible for the death of our parents. If you don't believe me-" He reached into his pocket, took out Hikari's note, and slid it across the musty bar counter, "- then how come I have that? A note written by Hikari instructing me how to infiltrate this meeting and detailing all your powers?"

* * *

Navigating the building wasn't all that hard. The lower floors were mainly empty space, and the middle floors were being used to store various pieces of equipment, medical or otherwise. But he recognized some of the rooms, having seen them on his first time through here, and as he ascended the floors and passed the rooms of the otherwise silent tower, he managed to keep moving forwards.

Though, even if he was finding it easier to get through this tower, it didn't help the ever-increasing amount of dread being piled on him. He powered through it, however, and kept going. He kept going until he stumbled through a door into a room unlike any of the other ones he'd been into, and immediately stopped to take stock of his surroundings.

It was dark, for one. Most of the building was dark, but this place was especially dark. There was no lighting save for the acid green lights coming out of large tubes lining the walls of the room, and in each tube was a misshapen, human monster with an exposed brain, various shades of dark or light skin, and disjointed limbs suspended in a clear liquid. Nomu, he realized, as he looked around at the dozens all around the room. Outside of the tubes, the room itself was completely cluttered in pieces of equipment and computers, to the point that, in order to get to the center of the room, Hikari had to sidestep around the piles of equipment just to make headway.

And he would make it to the center of the room. Because in the center of the room was the second man he was looking for. A doctor, sitting in a chair and typing feverishly at a computer screen that glowed green back into his face. He seemed so absorbed in his work that he didn't even notice Hikari stop right behind him. Hikari waited for the doctor to finally turn around and address him, but when it became clear he didn't even register his presence Hikari grew frustrated, grabbed the back of his chair, and whirled him around so the two could face one another.

The face that was staring up at him from his chair in muted shock was completely unremarkable. A seemingly middle-aged, round face with a bald head, a wide, brown mustache, and beady eyes concealed behind thick spectacles. But it was a face Hikari remembered, even after all these years, and he was surprised to admit that the man didn't seem to have aged a day.

"You were the one that saw to me the day I broke that kid's arm, and who diagnosed what my mother's Quirk had done to my body," Hikari mumbled as he eyed the doctor up and down. "Your name was... Garaki Kyudai, if I am not mistaken."

"Shinka." The older man below him in the chair sputtered, look left and right, and then back to Hikari. "What- what are you doing here?" he asked. "I don't see Shigaraki anywhere. Did you just let yourself in my... what are you even doing here?"

Hikari gave a casual shrug. "Oh, you know. Went rogue," he explained. "Here to kill All For One. Thought I'd drop by since I was here already."

"You what?" Garaki shook his head and blinked his eyes. "I must've misheard. You couldn't possibly be-"

The small, almost inaudible whirring noise followed by a glowing source of light cut him off. He snapped his eyes up to the teen's hand, and visibly blanched when he saw the white orb of light slowing growing in the palm of the hand the teen was pointing directly at him. As for Hikari, his own face was completely straight and stared down unblinkingly at the doctor.

"... I see," he mumbled, voice resigned. "So that's why you've come."

"You don't look that surprised anymore," Hikari noted.

At that, a low chuckle left Garaki. "I ceased receiving surprises ever since I began associating myself with that man," he confessed. "He doesn't need a Quirk to see every possible future path and plan for it in advance. Though, I'm sure if we looked hard enough, we could have found something to help him along with that."

Hikari pursed his lips. He didn't like the implications made by those words. He also didn't like being so unsettled by how blase the doctor's tone was, but managed to maintain the light at his palm.

"You're here to kill me, then?" the doctor continued.

"... I thought about it," he admitted. "I don't really know what your whole deal is or why you're All For One's personal doctor. I don't know why you helped him steal so many Quirks or what you have to do with all this Nomu nonsense. But I do know you did it all." His gaze sharpened, and the light intensified. "And you were the one who recommended the attempted theft of my mother's Quirk, weren't you? Since you were there that day at the hospital."

"It was a very unique Quirk that presented all sorts of possibilities for my research." He admitted it so casually that Hikari almost faltered, and the light at his palm briefly flickered he was so shocked. The doctor wasn't even smiling or was talking in a tone that implied he was gloating. He was talking in a way that made it sound like he was having a normal conversation. "I wanted to see how well her Quirk would bond with the Nomu. He wanted her Quirk for his own personal use. Ah, alas, she died that day. A waste of a perfectly good Quirk."

"You're really not helping your case here," Hikari intoned. He tried to appear calm, but hints of anger managed to leak out into his voice, and the light intensified. "That said, I'd like to avoid needless killing. As far as I'm concerned, it's all _his_ fault, and you're just an accessory." He tore his arm to the side and aimed the light at the tanks lining the room. "I really don't like you, though, so I'm getting rid of these just to spite you."

A beam of light was emitted from his palm, and the continuous stream of photons impacted the first tube holding the unfinished Nomu. The tube burst on impact, and the liquid inside instantly vaporized as the unfinished Nomu, horribly twisted, burnt, bleeding, and dead from the light beam, flopped out onto the floor. Undeterred, Hikari dragged his arm and the beam of light in a slow circle across the room, catching both the Nomu tubes and any medical devices in his way in its path and simultaneously destroying them. By the time he was finished, every tube and the Nomu inside were destroyed, most of the equipment was burned and ruined, and multiple fires began to grow were his light had touched the room.

After finishing his small tantrum, Hikari turned back to Garaki. The doctor was slumped in his chair and an annoyed grimace was on his face, but otherwise he seemed no worse for wear. Considering the burning lab around him, he actually looked great, which only added to Hikari's confusion.

"This wasn't my main lab, but much of my work was here nonetheless," he said. "I hope you feel better about yourself."

"I regret to inform you I don't, much to my frustration." Most of that frustration stemmed from the comment he made about this not being his main lab. He'd really only done this to make the man mad, and he hadn't even done that. It didn't even relieve any of the stress that had begun to accumulate within him, nor did he glean any satisfaction from seeing the dead Nomu fall to the ground. If anything, the impassive face the doctor wore only served to anger him further. "Alright. I'm out of here. Hope I never see you again, Garaki."

He turned his back to the older man and began to stomp his way out of the lab. He didn't even make it halfway before the doctor started speaking to his back.

"I would wish you luck, but it would be a waste of words," he said. "You have no hope of beating that man, even with an enhanced body and Quirk."

The words passed right over the teen's head, and he slammed the door to the destroyed lab right behind him.

* * *

Shigaraki looked down at the note, and his breath hitched at the sight. A shaking hand reached out to pick up the note, and his eyes scanned the words on the paper for only a brief time before he shuddered and dropped the note in shock.

"... Okay. I understand," Shigaraki said. "It's... an extremely unfortunate coincidence. I get it." He paused, and his hand slowly reached up to his neck. "You know, I don't think UA will appreciate one of their model students scheming and confronting villains behind their backs. You don't even have a provisional license, which makes this little bust of yours illegal. So-"

"I'm leaving UA," Kyomu interrupted, and the moment he said that Shigaraki's fingers had practically stabbed into his neck. "We're both leaving the country. We're sick of this place and the laws, the history, the everything. So we're gonna leave and start over."

"Well, if you're already committed to leaving UA, all the better!" The villain's voice began to grow high, and there was a hint of desperation to it. His fingers began to aggressively scratch at his neck, and flakes of skin could be seen falling right off. "You both just wanna be together again, right? Just... just stay with us! You both have extraordinarily strong Quirks; you can both help make a difference for this country! And how far do you really think you two will get if you try and leave!?"

"Yeah, that doesn't really erase the whole 'All For One killed our parents' dilemma."

"We'll... we-we'll make it up to you! And he'll, he'll forgive all of this if we just explain! We can... you don't- Hikari can just-!"

"Shigaraki." Kyomu shook his head, and the older male froze. "Our minds are made up. There's nothing you can say that will change our minds." A flat, black, spherical hole opened on the bar counter right next to him. "And this conversation's done."

His hand darted into the black portal, and through a second one that appeared over Shigaraki's head the hand emerged, grabbing the back of the villain's head and slamming him right into the bar. The aged wood shattered on impact, and his body slumped to the ground right after. All the other villains could do was look on in shock as Kyomu smoothly pulled his hand back and spun around to meet the gaze of the villains fully.

"Alright," he said, "let's get this over with."

* * *

The anger that was slowly coursing through his body was certainly an effective buffer to the earlier dread, fueled solely by the doctor's words. How that man could be so flippant about the death and planned experimentation of his own mother. How he sounded like he didn't care, and would much rather get back to his own research.

They knew. Oh, maybe not Shigaraki, but All For One and that doctor knew all along they were at fault for her death and never said a thing. He didn't know if they knew the truth with Kyomu, but at the very least they knew they killed his parents and let him join the League directly affiliated with them. Why? Because he had a strong Quirk and wanted to join willingly? Because it was too much of a hassle to do anything about it? Did they even care? Did they even spend a single thought at the matter, or did they wave it away as a strange coincidence?

No matter the answer, he would be livid. So naturally, he was angry. Angry enough that, as he stalked through the halls and climbed up to the highest room, his room, he barely even registered an electronic screech that sounded through the ceiling signaling the activation of a PA system.

"Shinka Hikari." There was that voice. That deep, menacing voice with a playful lilt at its back. All For One's voice. "So glad you decided to join us this morning. And right before breakfast, too."

He didn't even sound angry or surprised. He sounded normal, almost expectant. But, as he rounded a corner, Hikari decided to play along for lack of anything better to do, and to calm his own rising nerves.

"All For One," he called back, his voice raised. "I spared your pet doctor. You're not getting the same treatment."

"And for that I thank you, truly. Garaki Kyudai is a remarkable doctor unlike any other." There was a pause at the other end of the system. "I have to admit, I'm surprised that you would hold such a... blunt assault, young Shinka. Though, I suppose direct is your personal style."

"Oh, I gave up on stealth word go," Hikari said as he turned a corner. He saw a security camera staring at him from the ceiling, causing him to sneer and fire a beam of light at it. The camera exploded with a small _pop!_ and Hikari continued forwards. "I saw your messed up face, and I know your power. No telling how many extrasensory Quirks you got in that gross body of yours to compensate for your lack of face. You probably saw me the moment I stepped into this building." He kicked a door off its hinges and stalked through the hole. "Besides. I'm not in the mood to sneak around."

"True enough, true enough." Another flight of stairs came into view, and Hikari quickly ascended it. "Shigaraki will be greatly disappointed in this betrayal," All For One noted without a hint of remorse to his voice. If anything, he sounded like he was having _fun_ with the whole situation. "Did my words of trust all those months ago go unheeded, Shinka Hikari? However could you betray your own comrades, the ones who sheltered you from a society of heroes hunting you down like a dog? How could you betray me, the man who had confided in you on the rare occasion? That was a privilege I gave nobody aside from Shigaraki."

"You killed my parents." On his way up the stairs, Hikari blasted another camera. "That's reason enough."

All For One chuckled, actually _chuckled_ , at that answer, and the absurdity of the action almost made the teen's blood boil in anger. "Is that what this is about?" he asked. "I expected this to come up one day, but I had no idea you would react so strongly. Can we not simply talk about this like adults?"

Hikari didn't respond, and instead just pushed his way through the next door, damaging the whole door frame in the process, and stomped down an unusually narrow corridor towards the single door at the end. He could see light bleeding in from the cracks in that doors, both greens and blues. It was a glow he was familiar with.

That was the room, right there. Which meant he was behind that door.

He wasted no time and used Light to zip right up to the door and practically flung it off from the hinges when he ripped it open with his hand. It was the same room as he remembered, when the whole League had been teleported here using that strange warping power. A room not unlike the doctor's own small lab. It was chock full of medical equipment, monitors, tubes leading every which way, and there was a large chair in the middle facing all those monitors. And behind that chair, standing upright and facing Hikari, was All For One.

There wasn't much different about the man now compared to when Hikari first saw him. Average build, average height, average unassuming business suit. What was different was that thing on his head. A large, black mask that encapsulated his entire head and had tubes at the bottom running into his neck and jaw. The face of the mask was glossy, though Hikari seriously doubted it was glass, and tinted black as to obscure the fact behind that mask. And if he squinted and tilted his head just enough, he could almost believe that he could see a skull in that glass, though that could have been a trick of the light playing with the material.

But he couldn't care enough to try and pay attention to that detail. Not because he was so angry, though he was as he looked at that man, but because of the intense pressure that had assaulted his body the second he locked his eyes onto the man's body. He couldn't quite describe it other than it felt like his body had grown heavier than it ought to have, and he could feel his heart rate begin to spike. As if the feeling of apprehension that had been growing ever since he stepped into the building was all crashing down on him at this very moment.

 _"What is this feeling?"_ He managed to maintain a straight face and keep his posture rigid, but there was nothing he could do about the fact his breathing had increased, as well as the bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. _"It feel like my body wants to collapse. What's going on? Is it... is it fear? Am I afraid?"_ His teeth made a sharp clack inside his mouth and he shook his head. _"No, no way. Get it together, Hikari. This is the guy responsible for everything. You can't be afraid right now. If not for your sake, than for Kyomu's. You promised him that you'd deal with this guy."_

He took a deep breath, flexed his hands, and narrowed his eyes. Now wasn't the time to be afraid. It would all be over once this man was dead. One last fight, and it would all be over.

"And here you are," All For One stated, voice more or less the same despite being filtered through that mask. "All this trouble over a single hero and a lowly accountant."

Hikari sharply exhaled, but otherwise said nothing. At the same time, he relaxed the finger on his right hand and cupped his palm around seemingly nothing.

"And to think," he continued, "that you're suffering through all of this even though you didn't kill a single person."

He wasn't even that surprised. "So you know," he blankly stated. "Yeah, I guess that guy was right. Most open secret in the world and somehow we're the only ones that know it."

"Indeed," All For One agreed. "Though, I have to ask how it is you came to the conclusion that I was the one that sent Hirose Kenji to your house that night. I envisioned you finding the truth one day, but certainly not so soon."

"You know that weird villain situation with the memory loss from a few days ago?" Hikari asked. "Yeah, that was Kenji's brother, Akame. He told us everything. Then we killed him."

The black mask on the man's head nodded. "Ah. It all becomes clear." He looked to the side. "That man always was more trouble to deal with than he was worth. Even in death he continues inconvenience me." He looked back to Hikari. "You blame me for the death of your family, and for good reason. But was it not this society of ours that failed to deliver proper justice, Shinka Hik-"

"Do not even try to flip this to the 'society is broken' argument," Hikari interrupted. "I'm not going back to the League. We're leaving. You're dying, because evidently the heroes are too incompetent to do it themselves."

"I can't argue that," All For One said with a small, sardonic laugh. "It really is a shame, though. Young Tomura will be heartbroken. You don't realize just how truly he valued you. And you would have made a fantastic villain."

Hikari sighed. "Probably, yeah." He rose a hand so that his empty palm was facing All For One. "But I got better things to do."

"And what-"

There was a flash that muted any further words from the man.

* * *

Hikari's Quirk, Light, was special in that it granted its user the intrinsic ability to manipulate photons within the environment. The only limits to this ability were those granted by the user's body, their imagination, and how much light they had stored before using any abilities, so naturally a well-lit environment played a large factor into how strong the ability was.

Over time, Hikari had developed the Quirk so intensely that it could be confused for multiple Quirks. This was due to how broad the power's description was, as well as the teen's own imagination of how to use it. Abilities ranging from firing beams of light to making shapes using condensed hardlight to modifying speed to bending light to create invisibility. Any single one of those things could have been a Quirk on its own, and yet all were at the display of Light.

This was, of course, known by the entire League, and by extension, Hikari assumed, All For One. Considering the man's age and experience with Quirks, he had little hope that he would be able to surprise All For One in their fight with his abilities as the man could likely predict anything he could prepare.

So what was he to do in the face of a grueling fight? He decided to cheat.

First, it was broad daylight, which proved ideal for him. Walking towards the building, he'd absorbed and stored more light into his body than he ever had before, to the point he'd felt like he was liable to explode from the amount of photons rattling around in his body. Second was for him to charge up the biggest and most powerful beam he could, something even bigger than the beam he'd used to escape prison. He began charging said beam in his hand right after he faced All For One in person and they began conversing. And finally, third, he decided to bend light around the charging beam to make it invisible and hide the fact he was charging said ability.

All this culminated in an attack that Hikari was confident could kill _anything_ , and he made sure it would hit All For One. That attack had come without warning and he'd pushed extra power into it to ensure the beam would hit him before his brain could even process the information of the light approaching him.

The result was that a great, thick cylinder of pure, white light exploded out of the side of the tower, near the top. The beam was thicker than a subway bus and stretched throughout the whole city, and only began dissipating right at the edge of the city's border. Citizens walking to work or heroes patrolling could only gape up at the large, white beam cutting through the sky with such intensity that nearby roofs began to melt and the air around it shimmered and waved aggressively. Of course, they soon had to look away, as the beam was too bright to actually stare at for long without risking damage.

Altogether, the beam had maintained itself for a solid minute before it disappeared abruptly. Back at the topmost room in the tower, Hikari stood alone, panting heavily as he held out a right arm that was entirely red due to the heat exuded from the beam. There was no longer a roof to the tower, as the force from the initial firing had been so intense that it had been blown away entirely, flooding the roofless room with sunlight. The wall he was facing also ceased to be, as well as any objects that had been vaguely within that area. All that was left was smoking ashes and a halfway-melted floor.

"Hah... hah... ah, man." Groaning, Hikari lowered his burnt arm to his side and marveled at the view of the city he'd created from that single attack. "It's a good thing that guy loved the sound of his own voice. Thought it would never finish building up."

The entirety of his first arm was covered in first-degree burns and there would no doubt be heroes flooding here before long, but he'd done it. Now all that was left was to find Kyomu and-"

"You astutely observed that I use extrasensory Quirks to compensate for my loss of sight, which is why it baffles me as to how you thought you were successfully concealing that attack from me. My Infrared Ray Quirk almost had me believe you were holding the sun itself in your hand."

Hikari froze. That voice, that oh-so-terrifyingly-familiar voice sounded directly behind him, completely clear and without strain. It was such a shock that he couldn't even find it within himself to move.

"I'll congratulate you for the magnificent attack, though, Shinka Hikari." He felt a finger press against the back of his left shoulder, and this time he did manage to turn his head. He just managed to catch sight of that terrible black mask, and not only did he see it was completely unscathed, but now he could have sworn he saw that skull within the glass-like material. "Rest assured I will return the favor."

In an instant, compressed air shot from All For One's finger and rocketed right through Hikari. He let out a high-pitched gasp when a fist-sized hole appeared in his left shoulder, and had no time to contemplate the new wound as the force from that attack pushed him forwards so far that he rolled off the edge of the room and fell down the tower.

Multiple grunts escaped Hikari as he rolled down the side of the tower, his grievous shoulder wound leaving a trail of blood every time he bounced against the glass. The pain he felt in his arm was so great that he couldn't move it, though while the right one was burnt, he managed to form a white sword and stab it into a solid part of the building before he'd even fall a quarter of the way down. He hung there, feet dangling towards the ground and held aloft by that one sword, but alive.

 _"Agh..."_ He grit his teeth and tilted his head down to his left shoulder. He almost wished that he hadn't looked, as the wound was even more gruesome than it felt. He could see right through the wound, and he was fairly confident enough muscle had been blown out to inhibit his use of the arm, as he could barely move it. The fact he could see bits of white under all that obliterated meat only confirmed how bad off the arm was. _"What happened? That beam... he actually managed to dodge it? No, he saw me charge it, and managed to react before I let it out. Infrared Ray... could he see the heat it was giving off? Stupid mistake. And my should- OH!"_

He let out a strangled sound when his eyes wandered to a nearby window, and he saw the vague reflection of a floating man in a black business suit behind him. He turned his head around and confirmed that, yes, All For One was a couple meters behind him, and yes, he was just casually floating in the air behind him. And then he rose his left arm, and Hikari saw the limb twist and inflate. He remembered the force that hard torn his shoulder apart, and just barely managed to react before it was too late.

All For One's arm decompressed to normal size, and the resulting decompression caused a cone of incredibly condensed air to slam into Hikari. The sword of light shattered instantly, and his body tumbled through all the glass, concrete, and metal all the way through the other side of the building. He'd flown back from the hole his body had made ten meters before he slammed into a square platform made of hardlight, made from his quick thinking. He slid down the square and softly landed on a second, near-invisible square that had materialized under his feet. A heavy breath left him, and his body, which faintly flickered with an outline of hardlight, collapsed against the hardlight platform at his back as he stared into the hole he made.

 _"I barely managed to cover myself from that,"_ he thought. _"It's impossible to know how many Quirks he has or what they are, so I couldn't plan around it. But just the couple he displayed so far... Infrared Ray probably makes my invisibility useless. And he keeps firing those air blast things at me. And there's still the fact he'd dodged that beam! Does he have some kind of speed Quirk? A strength enhancement Quirk? Is he just naturally that fast!? No, he can't be. Not with a body that needs life support. It's a Quirk. Gotta be."_ He groaned and shakily rose to his feet. He could already see the vague outline of All For One floating towards him through that hole. _"Hardlight can mitigate the damage, but what about the rest of his powers?"_ He shook his head. _"Just deal with them as they come, Hikari. You can't plan, so improvise. Use all this light."_

"I remember first hearing from Tomura how he'd recruited the boy whose life my actions had ruined, on how he wanted revenge on a society that had done him an injustice, and I laughed. I laughed harder than I'd laughed in decades," All For One told him as he slowly floated ever closer. "When I gleaned together the truth that your brother was the one who committed the deed, I grew unbelievably delighted. And your brother, Kyomu... UA's standards really must have fallen if he has so much free time on his hands that he can kill villains wantonly the way he does. Or did Stain, whose convictions rival even my own, really lose his fire after one bad fight and give up his goal up?" Hikari's silence was all the confirmation the villain needed. "A false villain trying in vain to change society alongside the very people who ruined his life. A false hero who turned his whole reason into being a sham because he couldn't get over his own grief. I must say, the comedy of watching the Shinka twins' story unfold so disastrously has been nothing short of exquisite, and for that, you have my eternal thanks." He raised up his left arm, and once more it begin to twist and inflate. "But unfortunately, Shinka Hikari, every show must have an end."

His arm shrank back down as the compressed air blast left his arm and headed straight for Hikari. It met resistance on its way towards him, however, in the shape of a square wall of hardlight. Though it shattered right through the wall, the area of air that was heavily distorted and was moving towards Hikari slowed down a significant amount, and only proceeded to slow down more and more as it smashed through wall after wall of hardlight behind the next. By the time it reached Hikari, it had dissipated to nothing once it reached the last wall, leaving a cracked square of hardlight right in front of his face.

Hikari moved right afterwards. Body glowing with a thin film of white light over his form, he dashed to the left using small, disk-shaped pieces of floating hardlight as platforms. All For One slowly spun in the air to keep his arm aimed right at him, though every time he fired compressed air at him, Hikari would zip up or down and dodge the air mass entirely.

While sprinting, six points of light began to float above Hikari's head. From each of these six lights a thin, concentrated beam would fire sporadically out of them and cut right towards All For One. To the teen's increasing shock, the man didn't dodge any of the beams. He merely floated in place and let them his his torso, legs, and arms, though when the smoke of his burnt clothes disappeared, Hikari could see through the holes he had made that his beams of lights hadn't so much as scratched the skin underneath.

 _"That's not good,"_ he thought as the six points of light above him disappeared. _"Okay, well, he's evidently durable, but he can't be invincible. He wouldn't have dodged my first attack like he did otherwise. So I just gotta use something stronger."_ He used a plate of hardlight to brake himself, and then sprinted in the opposite direction to avoid another blast of compressed air. _"The bigger, more powerful beams need a charge-up time, though, and he's already displayed the ability to read their telegraphs and dodge them accordingly. So how would... get close?"_ He stopped on a hardlight platform and faced All For One. _"Hey, there's an idea."_

White light began to build and coalesce in his right hand. At the same time, his irises began to glow an intense red, and light began to flow around his body in such a way that his white hair was being swished back and forth from the force it provided. All For One, who had lowered his arm in order to watch, chuckled at the sight while shaking his head.

"What is this? Trying to prepare another one of those laser attacks?" he asked the teen. "What do you hope to accomplish when you're all the way over there, Shinka Hikari?"

"You only managed to dodge the first one 'cause you saw it." While it was a response to the villain's statement, he'd muttered it in such a low voice that he doubted he'd heard him. Unless, of course, he had a Quirk to help with hearing, but whether he did or not was a fact the teen didn't particularly care about. "So watch this."

The white light was practically roaring around his body until he was little more than a solid, white pillar of light. This state of being was only maintained for a few seconds before it began to slowly spread outwards. All For One floated a few centimeters back in preparation, but was halted with the slow growth exploded outwards in such a way that the light pillar encompassed the entire area for a hundred meters out.

Staying silent, All For One tilted his masked head to the side as if he were trying to avert his nonexistent eyes from the light. The whiteness surrounding him faded after a few seconds, however, and what was left was the clear, morning air they had been fighting in previously. Morning air, he noted, that was intensely more hot than it ought to be. So hot the air was vaguely shimmering.

"Trying to blind Infrared Ray by heating the air around us to mask your body temperature and the temperature of your attack." There was movement that he sensed directly behind him, causing him to whirl around and grab the throat of the invisible figure poised right behind him. "But neither that nor decoys-" he spun around with the figure in his hand and held him between himself and another invisible figure, who was aiming their right hand at him, "- will be enough to fool me so long as I have the Scan Quirk."

Invisibility faded on both figures, revealing a Hikari-shaped mass of light in All For One's hand and the true Hikari right in front of them with his attack prepared. Hikari, gritting his teeth in frustration, willed the light clone he'd made to disappear from All For One's grasp before firing the beam. This proved to take too much time, unfortunately, as All For One took the disappearance of the clone as his cue to dodge. And dodge he did, moving as a blur to the side just as the beam passed him only to reappear at Hikari's side and grab his right wrist with his own right hand. This halted the beam immediately and caused the heated teen to look up into the villain's mask.

"As fun as this has been, Shinka, I think it's about time we... hm?" A confused sound left the villain's throat, and his mask tilted downwards at the wrist he was grabbing. "For some reason I cannot- oh, I see."

Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that he wasn't grabbing the teen's wrist, but was in fact grabbing a small sleeve of hardlight that was surrounding the wrist. The same sleeve that was part of the entire layer of hardlight covering the teen's body.

"So you need physical skin-to-skin contact to take somebody's Quirk," Hikari observed. His eyes were wide, and there was small shake to his voice, but otherwise he managed to remain calm and stare directly into the skull-like mask that his risen to meet his gaze. "You can't steal my Quirk as long as I have this shield on me." He twisted the wrist in All For One's grasp so that his palm was facing the villain. Light began to rapidly gather at the center of his palm, and Hikari was prepared to fire off the hastily-charged attack when the villain's deep voice rang out in a chilling calm despite the situation.

"Forced Quirk Activation."

Black, rod-like tentacles that bent at perfect angles and had red, circuit-like veins running along their length spread out from his left hand, one for each finger. The five tentacles passed right through Hikari's hardlight barrier and rammed right into his chest. Blood spurted out from the five points his chest had been penetrated, and Hikari was forced to release a pained gasp as a searing pain shot through him. His eyes snapped down the the five shapes piercing him, and then began to widen as his irises began to uncontrollably glow a bright red.

 _"What the...!?"_ Light began leaking out from his body. On random parts of his body, from his shoulders, hips, ankles, and waist, white, vapor-like clouds of photons were slowly leaving him, and a feeling of being drained was rapidly overcoming him. But try as he might to reel the light back into himself, he couldn't. And at the rate it was draining, he couldn't absorb the ambient light around him to replenish his reserves. _"My Quirk... it's not obeying me... don't tell me this power is-"_

"Since this pesky shield of yours is in the way, I decided to wrench control of your power with one of my own," All For One stated, confirming Hikari's fears. "I'll use one of my own Quirks to force you to release all that light faster than you can absorb it. Eventually, that shield of yours will give out, and this farce will be at an end."

He could believe it, too, seeing as he could feel his own reserves drain more and more by the second. Already Hikari could see the hardlight shield around himself began to flicker, and if it failed and All For One grabbed a hold of him, the fight would be over and he would die. He tried wrenching his wrist away from All For One, but his grip was harder than a vice's, and he couldn't even budge the wrist anymore. The tentacles stabbing into his chest weren't helping matters, either, as he could feel his movements become inhibited from them.

A frustrated growl escaped him. In his frustration, a light beam shot out from his palm and hit All For One, though it predictably did no damage. It did give Hikari and idea, though. _"He can force the light out of me, but I can control what little I have left."_ He snapped his head down and forced himself to focus. The fingers on his left hand began to flex, and though that single movement caused great pain to rocket up his body, it was working. _"Alright. Don't have enough to make anything big, so let's try this."_

Light coalesced around his dangling limb, and he willed the light to solidify around his joints and lift the arm up. Every minute movement sent white-hot heat up his arm as well as pushed more blood he couldn't afford to lose at this rate, but it got the arm moving. He had the light fully clench his fingers, and a shimmering, white sword appeared in his grasp right as his fingers clenched around the handle. It was only after he felt his arm hold a secure grip on that sword did he will the light around his arm to swing it forwards at All For One.

The white sword dragged across All For One's midsection, and for the first time since the beginning of the fight Hikari felt some relief when he saw a small, red, angry line be left in the blade's wake along his torso. It must have been jarring enough that All For One lost his focus, as he had released his grip on Hikari's wrist. Unfortunately, he was still held aloft by the black and red tentacles in his chest, and before he could even attempt to cut them, he felt his body lurch backwards. All For One had moved his hand and the tentacles attaching Hikari to him behind him, as if readying a throw, and once his arm was fully wound back he thrust it downwards. This had the effect of the tentacles whipping Hikari forwards, and while the force had been enough to jar him from their grasp, he was sent tumbling through the air, still powerless from the light that had been bled from him, and only came to a halt when he crashed back into the broken tower through a destroyed window.

"Keep struggling, Shinka Hikari," All For One rumbled as the tentacles retracted back into his hand. "The conclusion of this fight is a foregone conclusion, but not even some of the earlier users of that infernal Quirk One For All gave me this much of a fight. So keep struggling, and prolong my amusement as much as possible. It's the least you owe me for destroying my favorite tower and wounding Tomura so."

* * *

The proclamation Kyomu had made right after Shigaraki's body hit the ground forced all of the villains into action, though he had already prepared for this. Still in his seated position, Kyomu flicked his right index finger and guided it into a small, black portal. It exited an equally-sized portal right behind Twice's feet. The finger, wreathed in black, moved right through Twice's achilles's tendon on his right foot, causing him to cry out in pain and fall forwards. Right as he was falling, another portal opened right above his head, and from Kyomu's end a portal was right beneath his foot when he kicked downwards. The foot when through the portals and cracked against the older villain's head, causing his head to slam straight into the concrete and for his body to go still.

 _"Clone guy first. Warp guy second."_ Not missing a beat, Kyomu jumped off the chair, spun around, grabbed the chair with his right hand, and turned around once more in a full three-sixty to meet the villains. He used the momentum of his spin to swing the chair in front of him, and at the apex of the swing's speed, Kyomu released the chair into a black portal. In the next instant, a black portal opened next to Kurogiri, and the chair flew right through and smashed to pieces against his side. He grunted lowly and stumbled forwards, but the momentary stun was enough for Kyomu to use an application of Dark Drift to appear in front of him and reach through the mist at the top of his body.

 _"Huh. There is a human body in here."_ He was fairly certain the thing he was gripping was a human throat. He'd seen and grabbed enough to know the feeling, even if there was something... off about the way it felt. It couldn't place what, but pushed it out of his mind as he dragged Kurogiri forwards, balled his other hand into a fist, and punched into the mist and at his face three times, though Kurogiri's body had grown limp at the first punch. He quickly tossed the unconscious body to the side, and then stepped to the side to narrowly avoid a knife that was about to cut him.

 _"Knife girl. Appearance-changing Quirk. Useless in this scenario."_ Toga, yellow eyes wide and mouth set in an uncertain, uneasy smile, tried stabbing forwards at Kyomu. His response was to form a black sword in his hand and swipe at the blade. His Void sword managed to cut right through the knife, causing half of the blade to fly off, and all Toga could do was stare as Kyomu reached through portals, grabbed the blade fragment, and then stabbed it forwards through more portals until it ended up being embedded in Toga's back. She screamed out in pain and stumbled forwards right into Kyomu, who grabbed the back of her head with both hands and roughly pressed her downwards. Her face crashed into the knee he slammed up towards her, the impact of which caused her to lose consciousness and her body to slump to the side.

The girl's body had barely hit the cold ground before Kyomu saw tinges of blue at the corner of his vision. He tilted his head to the side ever-so-slightly and instinctively opened a Void portal in front of the pillar of blue flame rushing towards him. Dabi, at the other end of those flames, made a "tsk" sound and stepped backwards when he saw his flames be harmlessly avoided. Upon the third step back he was startled to find that he lost his footing, and hissed in pain when he looked down and saw that his foot had fallen into a hole made by Void. He pulled his foot out from the portal, and he released a strangled gasp when he saw his foot frozen over. He ceased his forwards attack and brought his hands to his foot, and right as he managed to get blue flames on the ice, a foot stomped on the side of his temple and caused him to flop to the floor.

Right after knocking down Dabi, Kyomu saw a shadow moving just in front of him and ducked down. The moment he did, an outstretched hand shot out right above where his head had been, and Kyomu whirled around from his crouched position to see Mr. Compress right behind him. He stood up, clamped down on the arm with his own left, and with the right he grabbed the artificial arm at the older man's side. A quick slice of Void cut the fake limb off at the shoulder, and Mr. Compress couldn't even let out a cry of surprise fast enough before Kyomu cracked the fake arm over his face, smashing his mask to pieces, and then brought the arm down once again on top of his head. This proved sufficient to knock him out, and his body crumpled to the ground beneath him.

There was a loud war-cry to his right, and Kyomu turned towards the sound. He saw the one with the lizard-like Quirk, Spinner, run towards him with... something. "What in the world is that abomination?" he muttered to himself as he dodged the _thing_ that was swung at him. The best he could use to describe it was a sword with dozens of various other sword blades strapped to the main sword blade. Nevertheless, he'd sidestepped the sorry excuse for a sword, spun around Spinner to his backside, and cracked the prosthetic limb in his hand at the back of his head. He, too, fell down to the ground.

It was after Spinner went down did Kyomu feel his body begin to pull forwards. He looked up from the lizard's body at the last member of the League, whose weapon was held behind their head and readied as Kyomu slid towards them. _"Right. Magna. Something about a magnet Quirk."_

As Kyomu's body was pulled towards the last standing villain, a Void portal appeared above their weapon and slid down its length, causing the weapon to disappear, and then vanished right before it made it to their hands. It was right after Kyomu was dragged right in front of Magna from the invisible force of their Quirk did they swing the large, iron bar at them, though it whiffed him entirely due to it being cut down to ten percent of its length. Magna noticed the severe shortening of their weapon and made a vague, confused sound, which was all the time they had before Kyomu swung the metal arm in his hand across their face. Weakened from the abuse, the arm fell to pieces in his grasp, and the muscled League member went still, swayed on their feet, and then finally lost consciousness and fell down.

His work done, Kyomu let out a loud sigh as he slowly turned from side-to-side to observe his handiwork. Eight unconscious villains were laid out before him, and he didn't even have to seriously maim any of them. With any luck they would be out for too long to help All For One fight his brother off, and by the time they awoke the twins would be long gone.

And to think he wasn't even out of breath from the small scuffle. Hopefully Hikari was having just as easy of a time as he was if this was the best the League of Villains could throw at him.

"That should do it for me," Kyomu mumbled to himself. "Chumps. All of ya." He lifted his right hand to his face, flexed it, and scoffed. "After all this time you all barely made it past two-bit thugs. Nothin' but a buncha three-bit losers," he decided before turning around.

He'd only made it four steps before pain-wracked cough stopped him.

"Where the hell do you thin-think you're going?" Only one person had such a distinct voice as that, and when Kyomu turned around to address that voice, he was none too surprised to see it was Shigaraki. He couldn't lift himself off his knees and had to lean up on what was left of the bar to support himself, but he managed to lift his head enough to face Kyomu. The teen noted that the hand he kept on his face had fallen off, likely when he bashed his head against the bar, and a pained, anguished face with chapped features stared up at him. "You're just... gonna knock us all out and leave after all that?"

"I already told you. I'm just here to incapacitate you." He turned his back to Shigaraki. "If I had it my way, I would have saved myself the trouble and killed all of you. But Hikari asked me to spare you for whatever reason. I honestly don't think he would have if you'd told him the whole truth, but whatever." Kyomu started walking forwards. "It's his final gift to you. Don't waste it."

"Hey... hey, wait!" Shigaraki had released his grip on the bar and attempted to crawl towards Kyomu. "You can't... Hikari can't just-!"

A black portal opened next to his head, and a fist sailed through. It hit the side of Shigaraki's head, and his words were cut off immediately to silence as he slumped to the ground. Kyomu afforded him one last glance over his shoulder, and then wordlessly turned back forwards and proceeded out of the warehouse.

* * *

 _"Well, Kyomu... looks like your twin brother messed up."_

He couldn't really precisely pin down the moment during the fight that he realized he wasn't going to win. Hikari theorized that it was perhaps after he'd been thrown through that tower the second time, but his thoughts were in such a blur at the moment and his body practically numb from the pummeling that he couldn't mind the processing power necessary to think about it. But, while he did try his hardest to fight the monster in front of him, a base part of him knew it was a futile effort.

 _"I'm sorry. I tried. I really did. He was just too strong. Foolish of me to think I could take him on when All Might could barely do it, huh? But I thought, since he was weakened, that I could do it."_ Hikari's body tumbled through the air, and his burnt arm reached out and grabbed a square piece of hardlight to keep him from falling down to the streets a couple hundred meters below him. _"Maybe you could have done it with Void. Doubt even his freakishly tough body and all his Quirks could have defended against your power. But I had to go and saddle you with Shigaraki."_

The battered, bloodied teen pulled himself up to his knees on the platform, and barely had enough time to register the dark-suited form flying towards him. He attempted to materialize dozens of sheets of hardlight between them, but All For One had almost effortless punched through each and every one.

 _"You should have been here to beat him. I should have been the one to deal with Shigaraki. He was my friend. My responsibility. But I was too scared. Too scared of seeing Shigaraki's reaction. Too scared of you fighting this guy."_ Four white swords flashed to life at Hikari's sides and shot towards All For One. The villain shattered each and every one with his forearms like they were nothing, and then in a single, inhumanly fast and fluid motion, flew in a curve right towards Hikari's side and kicked him. He felt ribs completely break under the kick and could only managed a subdued groan as he was once again sent sailing towards the broken tower.

 _"And I wasn't just scared. I was hateful. I wanted to be the one to kill him. Selfish, yeah, but it's the truth."_ He could barely sit up amidst the rubble he'd landed on. He felt blood begin to flow freely out of his mouth, and the mere act of breathing became a struggle to him. _"He took our parents, but he took over a decade of my life. I was angry, and I wanted... I just wanted all that time back. Knowing that I could point all that grief to a single man as opposed to some intangible concept of society gave me something to be angry at. Something I could just blast away with lasers to make myself feel better. It didn't work out too well."_

In a blur of misplaced air, All For One appeared standing above him. It was all Hikari could do to try and raise his hand up to him, and he even managed to charge a tiny amount of light in his hand, but before he could do anything a long, spear-like spike of bone had shot out from All For One's elbow and impaled itself right through Hikari's right knee. The teen let out a strangled scream and attempted to reach for the bone impaling his leg, but All For One had pivoted his arm and flung Hikari to the side. The violent motion tore the spike out from his knee, and the leg it was connected to began to flop freely in the air as Hikari's body smashed through a wall.

A pained moan left him every time he hit and rolled on the ground, and he'd just barely came to a stop before he felt five objects stab into his back. He managed to make out those black and red tendrils from earlier, but that was all he could perceive before the tentacles lifted him a meters off the ground. The tentacles detached themselves from his back, and directly in the path he was falling was All For One. The aged villain, in response to Hikari falling, reared his leg back and kicked upwards once Hikari's body became level with his waste. The villain's shin impacted Hikari's midsection, and all the air in his lungs as well as another mouthful of blood was spat from his mouth before the force of the kick sent him rocketing upwards into the sky.

 _"Above all that, though, I felt... I felt guilty."_ Hikari's body tumbled up and down uncontrollably as the momentum of the kick carried him up into the sky above the tower. _"I was the first one to be born. Four minutes wasn't much of a difference, but it technically made me older. I was the first one to get a Quirk. I had power that night. It should have been my responsibility to stop Kenji from wounding our parents. I could have if I reacted better. If I had, you wouldn't have seen all of that and accidentally awaken your Quirk. That's why I lied and for you. I never was able to forgive myself. Forgive myself for failing my family. Forgive myself for leaving you alone all those years. Forgive myself for the way you turned out. I thought if I worked with Shigaraki and changed society I could maybe redeem myself. Then I thought if I killed All For One, I could make it all up to you."_

His body came to an abrupt halt when, up in the clouds, a hand gripped around his throat, and the sudden jolt from the stop intensely rattled what little bones he had left that weren't broken and caused those that were broken to shift around and make pain spike through his body. Through his bleary vision, blurred by both tears of pain and blood, Hikari could just barely make out the black, blobbed shape that was All For One's mask.

A gag formed in the back of his throat, but due to the hand constricting it, he couldn't let it out nor even breath. He couldn't even feel his body anymore, and the edges of his vision were growing dark. He was fairly certain All For One said something, too, as he could have sworn he heard _something_ , but even his hearing was almost gone by this point. But, defiant to the end and cognizant of the light around them, Hikari had mustered the will to make one last sword of light at his side and, instead of flinging it, had the floating sword swing at All For One. Unfortunately, due to his rapidly-decreasing mental fortitude, the sword was extremely weak and broke apart to nothing on impact. It was not for naught, though, as even through his failing vision he could see a long, white scratch running through the center of the black mask.

In spite of it all, Hikari had managed a small, bloodied grin when he saw the scratch. He'd have that much at the very least.

All For One wasn't nearly as amused, though, as he'd let go if Hikari, pointed his palm at him as he fell, and fired another burst of air from his own palm. His body was in such a state that Hikari didn't even feel the large hole that had been blown completely through his chest and out his back, nor could he perceive his falling speed be dramatically increased. All he could see was the wind rushing past his face until he fell back to the tower once again and fell through three floors before finally stopping.

 _"I'm really, really, really sorry, Kyomu. I just wanted you to forgive me."_ Hikari's vision began to darken. Breathing was slowing, and his exhaustion was to the point that he couldn't move if he tried. _"I just... wanted to see you smile again like before..."_

His head listed to the side, and with a final, rattling breath, the light left Hikari's eyes.

* * *

Expensive, leather shoes softly touched down on the rubble that had formerly comprised the upper part of his tower. Brushing some dust off of what was left of his suit, All For One slowly walked forwards and ducked through a few hanging pieces of metal and concrete until he found what he was looking for.

Shinka Hikari's body was a sight for sore eyes, so much that he didn't even need eyes to see how bad the damage was. His final fall into the tower had landed him on a bed of rebar pointed up like spikes, which were now running through his torso and limbs as he laid on him. Between that, the hole in his chest, and the myriad of other wounds he had inflicted upon him, it was no wonder that he detected no signs of life coming from the still body.

"So. You've finally expired, have you?" All For One muttered as he stared down at the body. "A befitting fate for a traitor. I had hoped you would put this all behind you, Shinka Hikari, but Tomura does not need comrades who let emotions come before their goals."

The corpse below him remained silent, and in annoyance, the villain kicked at the side of his head. There was a sickening crunch as the neck snapped, and the head bent at an awkward angle. Finally, All For One let out a steady breath and allowed his shoulders to relax. No sooner had he done this did he hear footsteps quietly approach him.

He could see his doctor approach before he'd even entered the same floor, and made no reaction as he gazed at the body below their feet. The look on his face was entirely impassive. "That took longer than I expected," he blithely commented. "I didn't imagine he would give you that much trouble."

"He was a formidable opponent," All For One admitted, "though, considering his genetic upbringing and Quirk, it's none too surprising. And he had even more fire in his eyes than previous users of _that_ Quirk. I shudder to think what he would have become if he had been the inheritor of One For All."

Garaki hummed, but otherwise said nothing in response.

"I'm afraid this home of ours had been compromised," All For One continued as he turned away from the body. "Heroes will no doubt be swarming the premises before long. We will have to retreat to your personal lab for a time." He pointed to the body behind him. "And bring that with us."

Another hum, this one more interested than the last. "You wish to extract the Quirk?" he asked.

"Perhaps in time, but I've something else in mind," All For One answered. "I already have a line of vengeful successors hounding me to the grave. I don't need another, so I will be disposing of the brother before he becomes an issue. But I feel Tomura will need some retribution carried out on my behalf, and I wish to see the young one's resolve crumble right before me for all the trouble they have caused us. So bring the traitor's corpse. I have just the thing in mind for it."

* * *

Hours passed, but there was no sign of Hikari. Thoughts of searching for him had briefly passed his mind, but without a clue as to where he was, Kyomu didn't know where he would even begin. So he decided to just go somewhere Hikari could easily find him and wait for him there.

This took him back to the orphanage, where he waited patiently on the roof. By now enough time had passed that the sun was beginning to set, though he still patiently watched the gate leading to the orphanage's courtyard from the roof, expecting his brother to walk through any moment.

 _"I wonder,"_ Kyomu thought, feet kicking over the edge of the roof, _"when Hikari will come to pick me up?"_


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N- I don't say it enough- and by that, I mean I never say it- but I'll always be appreciative of the support the story gets. So, y'know, thanks for that.**

 **Anyways, just so you all can know the time frame we're looking at (and by "you all" I mean the people currently following the story and not the people in the future reading this when it's complete and can just look at the chapter numbers) we're looking at this chapter, two more after this, and an epilogue before it's finished.**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 29- Black**

* * *

It was Tuesday.

Kyomu was beginning to worry.

Sure, he didn't expect him to immediately come back to him after they both finished their respective business. Finding a way out of the country, quite understandably, would take some prep work. But the crushing anxiety Kyomu was feeling as he gnawed at the end of a pen in the middle of class would surely be relieved if his brother, at the very least, dropped by after he was done to tell him what he was doing.

Except he didn't. After two days, he hadn't heard a single thing from him.

 _"He couldn't have... no. No way. It's Hikari."_ He couldn't even focus on the sheet of notes staring out at him from his desk. Nor could he even pay attention to Mr. Aizawa teach at the front of the classroom. _"I'd feel a lot better if he told me why he was dragging his feet, though. Seriously."_

 _Snap!_

An acrid taste filled his mouth, and he had to spit out a black globule of ink as he dropped the pen he'd bitten in half by accident. Besides him, Sen quirked his hairless eye ridge and cleared his throat to gain the other teen's attention.

"Dude, you look like a death row inmate taking his final walk," he commented. "What's up?"

"Meh, y'know. Nerves." Some of the ink from the pen leaked onto the desk, and, without anything better to wipe it with, Kyomu grabbed his notes and tried to use the paper to wipe the ink away. This only caused it to smear further into the desk. "Since we're moving into the dorms tomorrow."

Sen nodded. "Oh, I getcha." He paused, and looked up at the front of the classroom as the bell for afternoon lunch rang. The other students were beginning to pack their things their bags, including Sen. Kyomu was the exception, and was mainly just tapping his foot on the ground nervously as he stared at the stain on his desk. Sen frowned at this. "We're just moving onto the campus, man. I really don't think you have to act so nervously about it."

The black-haired teen picked his notes up and began wiping at the ink. "I'm not jittery."

"I, uh... didn't say you were?" When Kyomu's head snapped to meet Sen's gaze, he hesitated before speaking again. "Alright, seriously, what's the matter?" he asked. "I know you're not so nervous over some dorm room, so what's the deal?"

"And I told you that I'm just nervous about moving," he answered back.

Sen scoffed, but otherwise said nothing and continued dig into his bag. Kyomu continued his losing battle against the ink on his desk.

 _"Goddamn ink won't wipe away. Who the hell decided to make ink so permanent, anyways? Damn desk isn't even supposed to stain."_ Growling in frustration, he viciously wiped the paper off on the desk one more time before tossing it away. "Forget it," he grumbled, and then turned to Sen. "Hey, so what are we... Sen?"

The bald teen in question was staring intently at his phone. Normally this wouldn't be a cause for concern- he, along with a majority of the class, almost always had their noses buried in those things in their free time- but there was something about his eyes that gave Kyomu pause. They were widened and rapidly moving from left to right as he read the screen, and his mouth was opened in a silent "o" expression. The hand holding his phone was even shaking slightly.

Last time he looked that concerned over news on his phone was four months ago when his brother escaped from prison. He doubted it had anything to do with Hikari, but it must have been serious news nonetheless if he was having this kind of reaction towards it. That assumption was only strengthened when Kyomu cleared his throat only to get no reaction from Sen.

"Hey, Sen." He reached his foot out and tapped the other teen's shin. "Something on the news?"

"Uh, yeah..." Sen gave a shaky nod. "Yeah, it's, uh... yeah."

"... 'Kay then." Kyomu reached down to grab his bag while continuing to speak. "So, what is it? Real bad villain attack or some disaster?" He paused and turned around while crouching near his bag. "It's not something with your mom, is it?"

"No, it's..." Shakily, Sen set the phone down on his desk. "Kyomu, what, uh... the name of your orphanage. It's Sunflower, right?"

Kyomu froze. The name rang out through his head a few time, and the bag he was holding dropped to the ground. "As it happens, yes." He slowly turned towards Sen as he rose to his full height, and his eyes wandered to the phone on the desk. "Sen. What's on the news? And what does it have to do with my orphanage?"

Sen only stepped back. He stepped back, and then shot his hand out to snatch the phone up. "You have to promise me you won't run," he said, slowly. "Before you look you need to realize that there's already police and heroes there, so you can't run off and-"

"I won't." There was absolutely nothing Sen was saying that wasn't causing his heart rate to steadily rise, but he tried to maintain his calm despite this. It was a mostly fake calm, but he held it up if only to get at that phone. "Can I please see what's on the news, Sen?"

He seemed extremely hesitant, but under Kyomu's gaze Sen finally relented and tossed him the phone. Upon catching the phone, Kyomu immediately flipped it over and scanned over the contents on the screen.

It was then he almost dropped the phone in shock at what he saw.

There were words and advisories zooming across the screen, but they were completely blurred from his vision as he focused on the picture the broadcast he was seeing. He'd lived there long enough to know that he was looking at the area where his orphanage was. There was the large courtyard and the stone wall that ran across the perimeter, though it had degraded to a point where it was practically nonexistent. There were heroes and police cars all around the street outside the wall. He could see the courtyard itself, and near the front the sign of the orphanage.

He couldn't find the actual orphanage itself. There was just rubble in its place, and a large cloud of dust amidst the ruins. He could, however, make out a blurry form standing within the dust cloud. He could make out no features, but the white beams of light firing out from the cloud and impacting the heroes and police all around it were unmistakable. His suspicions were only confirmed when the form turned into a white blur and began running all around the premises, and heroes and cops alike fell under that blur before it retreated back to the orphanage. It was hard to see due to the camera's field of view, though from the way the bodies were smoking and in pieces, it wasn't hard to imagine those men and women were dead.

That was Hikari's Quirk. So it must have been Hikari.

His orphanage was destroyed, and for some reason Hikari was there fighting- killing- heroes and police.

 _"What?"_ Now he did drop the phone, and Sen didn't even make a move to catch it as he looked at Kyomu with concern clear in his eyes. _"Hikari, you're... what? What?"_

"Hey, Kyomu?" Sen took a step forwards and held his hands out. "I need you to be calm, alright? I know this looks bad, but I need you to be calm and focus on me."

"What?" Kyomu slowly blinked, shook his head once, and looked up at Sen. "What's going on?"

"Kyomu, I _just_ saw that news feed. It came on right as I was looking at the news. I'm just as confused as you are, and I know that what we saw was- it was pretty bad, but-"

A black portal opened between the two of them. Through the classroom window, a second portal on a building's nearby roof could be seen appearing.

"Hey, hey, _hey_! Kyomu!" The portal dividing the two of them was wide enough that there wasn't a space that Sen could slip past to Kyomu's side, but the sides did have wide enough gaps for sounds to go through. "Kyomu, don't! You can't-!"

But it was too late, as the Void portal faded away with nobody at the other end. When Sen's turned to the window to look at the one at the top of the far off building, that one, too, was fading, and there was no sign on Kyomu.

* * *

 _"Hikari, what are you doing?"_

Never before in his life had confusion taken hold of his psyche this strongly. It was the same kind of haze over his mind that had appeared when he'd killed his parents and Kenji by accident that night and when Hikari first escaped prison. He couldn't think about anything else but what he'd seen on that phone, but at the same time it was so confusing he couldn't make sense of any of it.

 _"Orphanage gone. Kids're... what even happened to the kids? Mido? Why is... Hikari, what's going on? I don't..."_ Going through portal after portal, Kyomu wasn't even that aware of his surroundings. His sole focus was going straight towards the orphanage, and he couldn't even perceive or hear anything else around him. _"Gotta get there. Figure out what's going on."_

He would get all the facts straight when he got there. Why his orphanage was burned to the ground, why Hikari was there, and why he was murdering lawmen. He couldn't even fathom that last one, let alone all the other things. Hikari went to great lengths to ensure he didn't kill- he wouldn't have went through all that extra effort of sparing all those heroes the day of his escape otherwise. Kyomu _knew_ he didn't want to kill. So why now? Why now when they were so close to leaving!?

He needed answers. He needed to get to Sunflower.

Hopping out of the last Void portal found him at the sidewalk right outside of what was once the stone wall surrounding the orphanage property. Most of the police vehicles all around were completely totaled. The bodies of faceless heroes he couldn't recognize and police alike moreso. Bodies charred and grievously mutilates, as if they'd been cut apart by an impossibly sharp and hot blade.

Kyomu ignored them all as best he could and stepped onto the property.

The sign that once adorned the front was barely a sign anymore. The small, pavement path through the center of the courtyard leading to where the building once lay was totaled. The grass and surrounding foliage was practically gone, turned gray and flaking ash all around with only a few patches of green here and there to be seen.

Then came the remnants of the orphanage he'd lived in for so long. He felt something in his chest lurch when he saw there was practically nothing left. Just a large, rectangular plot full of embers and slag. And, all around, even more bodies. Bodies that were burned so horribly that they were unrecognizable skeletons, and he couldn't even count them since there wasn't even a single, intact skeleton and the bones were scattered around and broken so much. But the bones were small enough for him to know just who they belonged to. All of those bones were those of children, and if he looked hard enough, he wouldn't be surprised to see Mizo's bones around here somewhere.

"W... what...?" Kyomu could scarcely even comprehend the sight before him. His mind went blank as he stared at the apocalyptic scene around him. So many emotions from horror to confusion to sheer, raw shock was swirling within him, and it was such an overwhelming maelstrom of incomprehensible emotions that he felt lightheaded and stumbled backwards. "What the... why-?"

 _Step._

Kyomu felt his body completely freeze when he heard the definite sound of a footstep near him. He almost thought he'd imagined it, but then he'd heard a second footstep. His head started to slowly turn towards the sound, thought when the third footstep was a loud _crunch_ _!_ , his head snapped to the origin. He could see why it was a crunch when he looked at the ground: the foot making the noise had crushed one of the small skulls under its foot.

Its completely bare foot with chalk-white skin.

Blinking, Kyomu slowly looked up the foot towards the rest of the body. The legs were bare, with a large, pale scar on its right knee, and the only kind of pants it wore were torn, ragged white shorts that was almost the same shade as its skin. Aside from those shorts, it was completely bare of any clothing, and aside from the skin, seemed normal if not a bit tall and gangly. There were, however, numerous light scars across its body, and a particularly big one on the middle of its torso.

Then he reached the head, and he felt a pit form in his stomach when he recognized some of its features. The lower half was normal enough, with the mouth open in a seemingly thoughtless stupor. Everything above its nose, however, was absent, with the exception of a large brain filling the space with two large, iris-less eyes implanted and staring off in opposite directions.

 _"A... a Nomu? That's a Nomu, isn't it?"_ The teen took a step backwards, shaking his head and blinking while staring at the monster in front of him. _"A Nomu destroyed my orphanage? Why?"_

A high-pitched moan left the Nomu jaw, and the eyes on the side of its brain began rapidly roaming around. Its limbs went into a spasm, and both eyes instantly locked onto Kyomu. Upon sighting him, the monster screeched and raised its right hand towards Kyomu. When white light began building up and coalescing within the center of its palm, Kyomu's eyes had nearly bugged out of his head.

In a flash of light, it fired, though the beam of light that left its hand only hit a near-instant fading black shadow as Kyomu Dark Drifted to the spot behind it. The Nomu screeched again and swung blindly behind it, and while Kyomu managed to duck under the swing, he grew alarmed when he felt the air around the swing displace due to the creature's sheer brute strength.

 _"Why does it have Hikari's power?"_

Hopping backwards, the Void user tried erecting a dark wall in front of him to build space between him and the Nomu, but it must have had _some_ form of intelligence, as it darted around the wall and was sprinting alarmingly fast towards Kyomu. Too fast, he noted, and only then caught the thin film of light surrounding it. He just barely managed to go through a portal and come out a second on the other side of the courtyard before the Nomu slammed its hand down on the ground he'd been standing on previously. There was a flash of light, and the patch of ground was ash.

 _"All For One is responsible for making Nomu. Hikari went after All For One. This Nomu has Hikari's Quirk."_ His focus was less on the actual fight and more on trying to figure out just what was happening, and his mind was running so quickly that he almost got a headache from the thoughts running through him. The Nomu, having seen Kyomu across the courtyard, screeched again and swiped its hand in his direction with a large beam of light firing out from his palm.

He'd ducked under the beam in time, but the buildings across the street next to the orphanage weren't so fortunate. He could only watch as a wide, burning scar was carved into three buildings from the laser, and then had to jump to the side when the Nomu dashed towards him in a flash of light and kicked down where he'd been.

 _"I don't understand. I don't... what's a Nomu? How are they created?"_ By now, the creature was screeching at the top of its lungs as it wildly swiped and clawed at Kyomu, who only continued to stare wide-eyed at it as he thought and continued to evade. _"They're made by artificially transferring multiple Quirks into bodies, right? But... but were do the bodies come from? Did All For One steal Hikari's Quirk and put it in this thing? Or... wait..."_

Kyomu's feet slid across the ashen ground as a thought came to him, and he felt his body seize up as the full reality of the thought dropped on him. All the Nomu did was stop and quirk its head in his direction, almost in confusion at him stopping.

 _"No... don't tell me that's-"_

The Nomu's confusion ceased, and it lunged towards him with a right arm wreathed with white light. Once again the Nomu only struck a quickly-fading black shadow, but as Kyomu dodged to its side, a black line swiped through the extended bicep of the monster. Its arm fell to the ground after Void cut through the arm, and the monster screamed an inhuman scream as it clutched the bleeding stump.

"Hikari?" As he stood behind the wailing Nomu, Kyomu could barely hear his own voice above its screaming. It was just barely above a whisper, and he could feel his voice crack slightly at the uttering of that single word. "Hikari, is... is that you? Brother?"

The only acknowledgement the Nomu provided was to spin towards him, open its gaunt mouth in another screech, and charge a white ball of white within its mouth. Though the beam fired, it only made it a couple centimeters away from its mouth and into the black portal that opened in front of it. Meanwhile, Kyomu slowly circled the Nomu as it continued to scream its beam into the hole.

"It really is you, isn't it?" The further he examined him, the more Kyomu came to to realize, much to his horror, that he was right. Though his body had become distended and gangly, his thin, angled jawline was more or less the same; a jawline that was so similar to his. That Quirk that was so unmistakably his brother's Quirk. The voice, now that he focused on it, was extremely warped and higher than it should have been, but there was definitely some undertone to Hikari's voice that he heard under all the yelling. Even the pants were the same. They were torn into shorts now, but he remembered Hikari wearing those exact pants when he last saw him.

It was Hikari.

His brother was a Nomu.

"Hikari..." He couldn't even hear it screaming anymore. In fact, any sound besides the blood running through his ears and his own heartbeat became inaudible to him. Anguish was beginning to wash over him in such intensity that he almost believed that one of those beams of light him him, and his vision became blurry. "Hikari, what did he do to you?"

Hikari only screeched and charged him once again.

 _Shclick!_

It didn't make it very far, as Kyomu had met it halfway and rammed his arm, wreathed in Void, right through its chest.

"I... you're not... I'm..." It was a reflexive attack. The kind of move that Kyomu didn't even realize he'd made until he'd subconsciously committed it. He understood why he'd done it, though only after he slowly looked down at the arm piercing through the Nomu's chest and assuredly through where the heart was. "You're no longer Hikari. Are you? Are you even alive in there?"

His only answered was garbled screeching as the Nomu clawed at his back with his remaining hand. He grit his teeth as long, red gashes were left in his back from the long nails at the end of its hand, and with a chocked cry Kyomu tore his arm through its whole left side and out the chest. The Nomu let out a pained whine, flopped down on the ground, and convulsed for five seconds before instantly going still.

A low, shallow breath leaked out his mouth as Kyomu continued to stare at the unmoving body. He didn't know how long he stared at the thing that was once his brother, but he eventually came to the conclusion that the mutilated body under him was well and truly dead, and it was only then did he collapse to his knees.

"I'm so sorry." It was the only thing he could think to say as he stared at Hikari's body. It was the only thing he _could_ say, as his throat had tightened, his body began to shake, and tears finally began to flow freely down his face as the knowledge that his brother was truly dead hit him. _"He lost. He lost and All For One turned him into a Nomu."_ It was the only explanation he could come up with to explain things, and was the only one that made sense. _"It's all my fault. We shouldn't have tried to kill him. We... we should have just left. But I had to go and... Hikari, why...?"_

His head lowered, and he could barely make out the white form lying on the gray ground past all the tears flowing through his eyes. Through the silent sobs wracking his body, he managed to twitch his fingers. In doing this, the ground under the body slowly began to turn black.

 _"I'm sorry, Hikari, I... I put you out of your misery without even thinking about it. All that screaming... how much were you suffering before I put you out?"_ A black Void portal settled under the body, and slowly, like it was slipping under the surface of an ocean, the body began to slip into Void. _"I'm sorry I can't s-save you. All I can do is stop your suffering and dispose of your body. I won't... nobody else gets to touch it. Nobody else... I'm so sorry I let this happen, Hikari..."_

The body fell entirely through, and the portal closed. The only thing left was the sole surviving twin brother who was openly weeping at the empty, ashen ground as his arms hung limply at his side.

 _Clap!_

The crying stopped the instant he heard that clap. Once again, he felt every single muscle in his body tense and freeze up, and his eyes opened widely and stared blankly at the ground beneath him as he heard more clapping.

 _Clap! Clap! Clap!_

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little disappointed in the loss of that Nomu. Even the good doctor expressed such glee when your brother's corpse took to the procedure so well. It usually takes months for a body to adjust to all those foreign Quirks being installed and to come back through the revitalization process, but your brother managed to do it in as little as two days! Your mother's Quirk truly was something special, eh, Shinka Kyomu?"

He didn't recognize the voice at all. That aged voice that seemed to be full of so much malice despite the almost playful overtone it held. And, despite the fact he could hear the voice coming closer, he couldn't hear footsteps approaching him. Just more of that infernal clapping.

So, naturally, he looked up, but he saw nothing. He continued to see nothing as he looked around, and when he looked forwards, he saw a shadow on the ground. Upon seeing the shadow, he looked up, and gasped out loud when he saw a human form floating high above the ground above him. A human in a black business suit and a strange, black mask that encompassed his entire head. He couldn't help but note the long, white gash that ran through the center of the mask's face.

"Corpse? Hikari?" Kyomu repeated the words in a whisper as his head slowly dipped down to follow the man as he descended towards the ground. "Are you... are you the one that's responsible for that thing...?"

"That 'thing' was a testament to modern medicine and technology born through Quirk research, though, in truth, I doubt I could ever appreciate it as much as my colleague. But I digress." The man's feet touched softly onto the ground, and he remained planted in that spot as he looked down at the kneeling Kyomu, who, in, turn, stared up at him with wide eyes. "Yes. I, All For One, killed your brother, Shinka Hikari, turned his corpse into a Nomu, and set him loose on your orphanage."

It was the clearest admittance he could have ever received, but the sheer bluntness of it set only caused Kyomu to gape it shock. His mouth closed and opened in an attempt form words, and after a few attempts, he managed to croak out a single word. "Why?"

"Why, indeed? Why do anything, Shinka Kyomu? Why become a hero? Why become a villain? Why follow the rules of a society that effectively ruined your life? Why betray the League that offered you a home among villains? These are the questions I struggle to comprehend concerning the Shinka twins. Your brother saw the sham that is the hero society the moment he was unjustly thrown in a jail cell. Surely you discovered the truth, too, if you distrust this society enough to go as far as to murder the Hero-Killer Stain! And though I have no indication as to how many other villains you've killed, if any others, I would assume that the number would be at the higher end of the spectrum." All For One, hands calmly at his sides, took in a ragged breath through his mask before he continued speaking. "Justice, right, wrong... empty terms born of a make-believe society full of fools who dress like comic book heroes, legally flaunting their powers in front of others who cannot through a paper-thin wall of red tape. Justice is a lie perpetuated by a society fueled by weak-willed people who would let others decide what justice is for them, regardless if they agree or not. Justice- true justice- can only be defined and acted on by the individual, even if it goes against the fake justice of this society. That is the only path to freedom this loathsome hero society has provided us." Calmly, his left hand rose up and gestured to Kyomu. "But because of the heroes in this society, the path to freedom and true justice can only be tread by the strong; society would classify those who would use their powers for the sake of their own ideals and freedom as villains. You realized this the moment you went against this society's rules and murdered of your own accord in secret through the power of your extraordinary Quirk- I can see it in your eyes and heart rate that I'm right. Your brother came to the same conclusion, and used his power to claw back his freedom, even if he wasted it in the end. Even I had used my power to build an empire that would have finally rid this society of false platitudes and demeaning ideals, and would have succeeded were it not for that man and that accursed Quirk. So I ask you, Shinka Kyomu: why did you and your brother oppose us so violently even after learning the truth of this society?"

"You..." Kyomu mumbled, "you killed my entire family-"

"A good a reason as any, I suppose. And I truly am sorry I entrusted the collection of your mother's Quirk to that insipid moron, Hirose." Kyomu twitched violently at that. "Having had a brother myself, I could have understood any grievances you both held for me. I would have done everything within my power to make it up, and the League of Villains surely would have welcomed you both with open arms. Under Tomura, you could have all torn down this society that has imprisoned the freedom of everyone born within it. You could have brought true justice to your brother's lost time in prison. But, instead, you both let emotions run the better of you. Tomura has been near-inconsolable ever since you attacked him the other day, and the loss of Hikari has only worsened his condition." A sigh rattled out of his mask as he wiped a hand across the glossy face plate. "He had just begun making extraordinary progress and had started making decisions on his own without my guidance. Slowly but surely, he had begun to grow. You and your brother's stunt has undone months of conditioning and has shattered his confidence. But it's of no concern, as what was lost can be found again, and in the end this setback will have only strengthened his resolve. At the very least, I can thank you for that." The hand quit wiping the mask and fell back to his side. "But the gaping wound you both have left on Tomura's psyche cannot be forgiven. I'll erase any trace of your existence, Shinka Kyomu, starting with your brother and this orphanage."

All throughout the villain's speech, Kyomu's breathing began to steady. The longer he talked, the more and more the outside of his vision began to darken as his sole focus locked on to All For One's body. His hands began to twitch violently as black tears sporadically appeared and disappeared around his forearms.

"So what you're saying..." he said, "... is that you killed my brother. And turned him into that thing." His blue eyes began to softly glow. "You... you killed them all. My parents. My brother. Everybody in the orphanage." His right thumb and middle finger pressed together hard enough that the finger bones creaked. "All For One," Kyomu hissed, "I'll kill you."

He snapped his fingers, and at the same time his irises violently constricted. At that moment, all the sorrow inside him disappeared, and in its place formed a white-hot fury he'd never experienced before his entire life. And all of it was directed at All For One.

There was no period of time after he snapped that the space between All For One and himself wasn't filled with Void. Indeed, it seemed that Void had occupied the space between the two before the sound waves of the snap had even reached Kyomu's own ears. It was great enough that everything within his cone of vision was consumed by the blackness, and it was only a few seconds later when he snapped his fingers once again did the Void instantly blink out of existence.

The entire side of the courtyard he'd been facing was gone entirely. The ashen grass on that half had disappeared and left the soft earth underneath it. The street and sidewalk beyond the orphanage perimeter was completely gone, and the face of some buildings had disappeared as well, making it look as if a giant knife had cleanly sliced off those portions of the buildings off. Everything that had been within his range of vision- including All For One- should have been erased.

It was why he was so shocked to hear something whistling in the air towards him.

Kyomu rolled out of the way just as a leather shoe stomped down on the ground where he'd been. He barely managed to glance at the dark-suited form of All For One before he rolled through a portal and fell through a second above the villain. His right arm was wreathed in Void and posed to swipe at the older man, but just as he came within range, All For One's left arm shot out and gripped Kyomu around his throat.

After that, everything felt _wrong_.

Dangling in the air, Kyomu kicked fruitlessly with his feet as he grabbed at the hand holding him aloft. He tried to command Void to cut through the arm holding him, but to his shock he couldn't. In fact, he couldn't feel any control over his Quirk. What he could feel was a cold, draining feeling spreading throughout his whole body- it almost felt like all his blood was being drained out from his body. Worse, that cold feeling of something being drained from his body was flowing towards his neck, where he noticed that he felt the coldest.

 _"My... Quirk..."_ he realized, and in his panic he began kicking harder. _"It's... just by touching...?"_

In his rage, he'd completely forgotten how he had been warned that All For One's ability was to steal Quirks. He's forgotten to keep his distance and be wary of the power, as he'd been too focused on killing the man. It was only now that he was suffering under the power's onslaught did he remember he had the power in the first place, and it was only after choking gasps began to leave his mouth did he desperately search for any way to get out of the man's grasp.

"As much as it vexes me to admit it, your Quirk has a certain... irresistible quality to it." The words, much to Kyomu's disgust, almost purred out of the man's throat. It was the same kind of affection a child would display towards a new, rare toy, and the thought of it Kyomu sick to his stomach. "You've cost me time, emotional damage, property damage, and you've even robbed me of a superb Nomu," he continued, "and though I will take supreme satisfaction in your demise, I do not think I will be walking away empty-handed. So I will be taking your Quirk, Shinka Kyomu. I'm certain that I can find a better use for it than you ever could... and who know? Perhaps I'll have your body turned into a Nomu as well, for Tomura. His own pet to remind him of this calamity, so that he may grow and move past it all. I feel it's the least you owe us all."

"Owe... owe...!?" New anger flashed through him, and the grip on All For One's hand strengthened. It was so great that he could even feel the fingers give slightly. "You've taken everything from me... and you think I _owe_ you for it all...!?"

He pressed down harder on All For One's hand, and, to his relief, the fingers around his throat loosened. He could finally breath again, but more importantly, the cold, draining feeling lessened slightly. And with that relief came some modicum of control over his Quirk. It was small, barely noticeable, but he could feel it. And as All For One's right hand reared back, an idea flashed in the back of his mind, and with the last of the control over his Quirk that Kyomu could muster, he enacted his plan.

"Defiant to the very end," All For One admonished. "The same impudent defiance your brother showed me, right before I ended him. The only good it did him was that he managed to scratch my mask. It still irritates me that I have to look at that scratch every time I don it." His right hand shot forwards. "You can die in peace knowing you're following your brother's example."

A forearm stretched in front of Kyomu in an attempt to block the hand, but it was merely grabbed by the villain. The other hand around Kyomu's throat tightened, and the draining of the Quirk resumed.

There was one interesting thing of note, however. The draining feeling he'd felt earlier did not increase. In fact, it was half that of what it was originally. All For One seemed to notice this, as well, as his masked head tilted in confusion as a small, victorious grin spread across Kyomu's face. It was when All For One looked towards the forearm he was grabbing did a low hum escape him.

He had assumed, of course, that he had grabbed Kyomu's arm, who had tried to shield his throat in a vain attempt at preserving his life. This, upon him looking, proved to be untrue, as the arm he was gripping had a completely different skin pallor to Kyomu's skin. While the teen's skin was pale, the skin on the arm was chalk-white. When he looked closer, he saw that it, indeed, wasn't Kyomu's arm he was grabbing, but the wrist of a severed arm that Kyomu was holding by the cut-off end.

 _"In that single moment of control, I used Void to grab the arm I severed off of Hikari. It was lying right behind you,"_ Kyomu thought. _"This feeling... it lapsed again. I broke it's concentration! Which means I can do this!"_

With the limited control he had, he managed to briefly conjure a line of Void that slashed across All For One's left shoulder. Not the best he could have done, not by a long shot, but it proved to be just enough, as it caused All For One to grunt and throw Kyomu a few meters away from him while the severed arm dropped out of sight. The pain of tumbling on the ground was next to nothing against the warm, relieving feeling of his Quirk flowing back into his body.

The problem was that something else was flowing into him.

The pleasant, warm feeling grew hot. So hot, in fact, that Kyomu began groaning out in pain as heat began to lance through his body. He tried to get up to his knees, but his body convulsed uncontrollably and he flopped back to the ground. He continued to shake as all his veins burned, and he even tried ripping his school uniform's tie away and unbutton his gray school blazer to try and cool himself off. It didn't help in the slightest.

 _"Hot! It's hot! Burns!"_ His breathing grew labored, and his pains turned to near-shrieks when all his muscles convulsed once again. _"What-what's going on? It... it's getting better I think. Is it? It- yeah."_

There was still pain, and there was still heat flowing through him, but it was beginning to cool to a tolerable level. He attempted to get onto his knees a second time, and this time he managed it. He slowly lifted up his arms, and he breathed out in confusion when he saw his veins pulse once before settling.

He lifted his left leg and planted his foot on the ground. The pain pulsed through him once more, but it wasn't nearly as painful as it had been previously. He put his second foot down and finally lifted himself up to his feet. He stumbled forwards a step, took a deep breath, and finally looked at All For One.

The villain remained rooted to the same spot he'd been standing at when he threw Kyomu. In fact, he seemed to be just staring at him silently, and wasn't making a single move. And while Kyomu couldn't care less why it was All For One had paused, he saw something gave him pause as well and froze him to the spot. He saw his reflection in All For One's mask.

His appearance had changed.

Confusion tore right through him, and he had to blind to make sure he was seeing the correct image. While the right side of his shoulder-length, flowing hair was the usual black, the right side was the complete opposite color. It looked as if the entire left side of his head was dyed white, and he could clearly see the line in the center of his hairline where the black met the white. His left eye had changed, as well. While his right remained the usual dark blue color streaming normal tears, the left eye had turned into a deep crimson color with a single line of blood leaking out from the tear duct.

 _"What the?"_ Once again he blinked, and in his stupor he rose his left arm up to his face. _"My left side... changed colors? Why would... oh."_

Something began flowing along his left arm, but he could tell from a single glance that it wasn't Void. Void wasn't completely white in color. Void didn't have the appearance of drawing power out of the air around him. Void didn't flow so freely like that.

Light did, though. He'd seen Hikari use it enough to recognize it.

Blinking, Kyomu looked to his right arm. Lines of black appeared along his arm, and he could feel his control over Void. But he could feel something else there, as well. Something completely separate and foreign he'd never felt before, but at the same time, it was an almost familiar feeling. The look alone of seeing Light flowing around his left arm and Void around his right was surreal enough, let alone the actual feeling. But it was a feeling he had a complete handle on. He focused on the new feeling, and in a showing of almost innate control, the white flowing light around his arm bent and shifted to his will.

"Hey, Kyomu. Try not to let it go to your head, man."

That voice. That voice Kyomu couldn't help but yearn for, now more than ever. It was made worse by the face he felt a hand press down on his left shoulder, and from the corner of his eye he could instantly recognize the pale skin of his brother's hand.

"Sorry for screwing up and leaving you alone. But you managed to pull a miracle off, so do me a favor and don't waste it." The voice of his brother was whispered right into his left ear, and it was so quiet that he had to strain to hear it. "He has a lot of Quirks that make him extremely strong and durable. He's blind, but he has Quirks that make up for it. Don't hold back on him. And don't let him grab you, alright? It's all over if he takes your Quirks." The hand patted his shoulder. "But hey, you're my brother. You got this. You always do."

"Hikari?" Kyomu spun around, but there was nothing behind him. No hand on his shoulder and no mouth leaning in to whisper into his ear. There was nothing but silent, empty space behind him. "What... huh?"

* * *

Absurd.

It was the only word that could come to mind as he stared at the display before him. As he stared at the teen with bi-colored hair looking around and muttering at the empty air around him, All For One could only describe the situation as absurd. The instant he'd seen the other's change in appearance, he'd known what had happened. He'd felt it happen when he felt his control slip for just that second because of the wound inflicted on him.

 _"When he tricked me into grabbing that severed arm, I accidentally began to take the Light Quirk from Shinka Hikari's fragmented corpse,"_ the villain thought. _"I've never had a need to take multiple Quirks at once, so I was unaccustomed to the feeling. That moment of confusion gave Shinka Kyomu the opportunity to free himself. Because of this, the process of me taking the Quirks was interrupted, and unfortunately, the arm was dropped. The Quirks had to flow back somewhere, so they retreated into the only vessel available: into Shinka Kyomu._

 _"This could prove troublesome."_ Already, he could see realization replace the confusion in the teenager's heterochromatic eyes, and at the same time they became incredibly focused as they locked onto All For One's mask. _"Void is a bad enough Quirk to deal with. It's a Quirk that can kill its opponent instantly if one is not careful. Because of the Search Quirk I appropriated, I am able to read into him and see when he is about to use Void. I can avoid his instant, deadly blows as long as I am quick enough. But if he uses it in conjunction with Light..."_

He would never admit that he was concerned, as he wasn't concerned. There was no denying the feeling of foreboding deep within him, though. The same feeling he'd felt during the fight that had so gravely wounded him. The same feeling that had sprouted within him when the number one hero had punched his face off.

But All Might didn't radiate enough killing intent to directly compete with his own. In fact, now that he thought on it, Kyomu hadn't once even flinched in All For One's presence ever since he had made himself known to the other. Even his brother and All Might had buckled slightly under the intense weight of that intent that he radiated. Even against those that had the strength to fight him, he'd always been able to make them waver with his mere presence.

Kyomu was different. The way he was staring at him was much more different than anybody else he had ever faced. He didn't have the desperation that Hikari had in his eyes. He didn't have that look of righteousness and retribution tempered with fury and the pain of his organs spilling out that All Might had had that made him look like a rabid demon right before his sight had been taken from him. No, this was... confidence. Confidence and the deepest, most pure kind of hate being radiated in so much killing intent that the intent of both met right between them, making an almost invisible wall of opposing wills separating the two with unimaginable pressure on either side of the wall.

All For One had never encountered anybody that gave him this feeling. It was such an alien experience that he couldn't even describe it.

There was a flicker of light, and Kyomu's position changed. It was only a few centimeters, but in that time his body flashed with a film of white light and he'd changed positions faster than All For One could track. After the untraceable movement, Kyomu furrowed his black and white eyebrows, as if he was in deep concentration. All For One, not wanting to let the teen get a handle on his new Quirk, attempted firing off his Air Cannon Quirk. He'd risen his right arm, watched it inflate, and then watched it decompress as a blast of compressed air fired out from his arm and shot towards Kyomu. That blast of compressed air that was powerful enough to level whole buildings was stopped short of Kyomu when a wall of solid hardlight materialized right in front of him, and though the shield was heavily cracked and broken, it had done its job and protected him from the blast.

Kyomu didn't even look in All For One's direction. He was too focused looking at the ground and focusing on himself.

He flickered again. This time his position changed by a few meters. Another flicker, quicker than the first and second time, and his distance doubled. At that point, he chose to look up at All For One.

And then he disappeared.

The multitude of sensory Quirks All For One possessed, chief among them being Search, Scan, and Infrared Ray, screamed for him to defend himself. So, moving so quick he couldn't even think, All For One had whirled around and crossed his arms above his mask. It felt as if, the instant he did so, a colossal force smashed down onto his arms. He was able to see that it was Kyomu, with light swirling around his left leg as he kicked down at his arms.

But that couldn't have been right. That kick was stronger than it should have been- he felt himself actually being _pushed_. Him, with enough strength-enhancement Quirks to rival All Might's strength.

 _"It couldn't possibly be..."_ All For One thought as he slid back on the ashen ground under the onslaught of that kick. _"Did he accidentally absorb more than Light? Did the various physical enhancement Quirks installed into that Nomu get transferred to him as well? That can't be. A second Quirk is one thing, but multiple? Without the doctor's surgeries, the human body shouldn't survive integrating so many Quirks! Unless... Genetic Hardening."_ Underneath his mask All For One grit his teeth as the realization beat down on him almost as much as the kick. _"Is it possible that his enhanced body makes it so that he can handle the Quirks? Even worse, that they've amplified his already unnaturally-strong physical attributes?"_

He didn't want to believe it, but he had to in face of the facts. And the facts were that he was actively being pushed back.

And through the gap in his arms blocking the kick, he could see Kyomu's face. Due to the light shining off his leg his face was completely shadowed with the exception of his eyes. His red and blue irises were shining brightly, and they were narrowed in such a way that it was impossible to miss the raw hatred he was exuding.

But that look of paralyzing hatred was the least of All For One's concern, because at that moment light exploded off of his leg and, like a jet engine, pushed the leg down and caused the pressure being forced on All For One's arm to increase tenfold. And he screamed. It was a scream full of so much hatred and anguish that All For One was certain that it surpassed All Might's own scream when he'd taken his master away from him all those years ago.

 **"ALL FOR OOONNE!"**

* * *

His Light-enhanced kick finally broke through the villain's defenses, and he felt his leg push past the arms and directly hit the sternum underneath. He felt immense satisfaction when he heard the soft grunt come out of that mask, and even more when All For One was shot through the air. He snapped to a complete halt ten meters out midair, likely due to the Quirk that allowed him to float, and he settled back onto the ground while dusting himself off. Kyomu just stood his ground as he faced the villain.

"You think that just because you're stronger than everybody else that you can do whatever you want?" Light violently tore past his left side while Void continued to open and close tears in space along his right side. Through it all, his eyes never lost their glow. "I dunno. Maybe you're right. You managed to run free for decades. Maybe centuries. You only stopped when somebody stronger came around and beat you."

"You have no room to make such judgement," All For One countered. "I genuinely am curious as to how many villains you killed with your Quirk for the sake of your own indulgence. You're just as guilty as I am of using your Quirk to make your own right."

Kyomu blinked, and a bitter chuckle escaped him as he shook his head. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he agreed. "After all, the only reason we're doing this is because we both hate each other. So you can't be too upset when I say I'm going to kill you just because I feel like it."

"That's the way, Shinka Kyomu." Both of All For One's arms rose up to Kyomu. "Now you finally understand. You would have made a sublime villain. It's unfortunate you chose this path."

"What's unfortunate is that you decided to be born."

That last remark signaled the end of words between the two, and as the last syllable left Kyomu's mouth, they both sprang into action.

Air burst after air burst fired out from All For One's arms in an attempt to blast away Kyomu. The attacks left huge trenches in the ground and even managed to reach the streets far behind him, but none of them ever actually reached Kyomu. He was moving at such speeds that gray afterimages were left in his wake, dozens so, and all the while Kyomu was zipping all around All For One as the villain tried to lead a shot on him.

 _"Dark Drift, and Speed of Light... I have both now. I can combine them both."_ More afterimages were left in his wake as Kyomu jumped in the air, and used the Light on his left side to jet-propel himself in the air all around All For One. This created even more afterimages around the villain, whose head remained staring forwards even as his arms still tracked him. _"It's amazing I can even see going at these speeds. I feel stronger, too. Too strong. Why?"_ He hit the ground right behind All For One in a burst of light. _"Doesn't matter. End it."_

He punched All For One's side. He felt muscle and bone give out under his fist, and as the flesh distended under his assault All For One spun to his side and hammered his fist at him. All his fist managed to do was pass through an after image, and at the same time Kyomu appeared at the opposite side and kicked him. This went on again and again, where Kyomu would appear somewhere at his front, sides, or back, hit him, and then zip around to another point on his body as All For One busied himself with an after image.

This proved to be a strategy that only worked temporarily. All For One seemed to adapt, as his arm swiveled on its joint and successfully pointed to the spot that Kyomu was about to stop at. But, instead of coming to a halt, he pressed forwards right into a Void portal that deposited him through a second one a few meters away just as he fired a blast of air on the ground near him. After landing, Kyomu's blue eye flashed as he attempted to cut All For One down with Void, but the masked villain's head snapped up and his body flew backwards at unnatural speeds as the space he occupied was filled with dozens of black slashes that appeared briefly before fading.

 _"It can anticipate and react to me using Void. Must be a Quirk,"_ Kyomu surmised. _"I won't be able to just kill it instantly with Void. But it must be dividing a lot of its focus into avoiding Void. That's fine. It just makes more openings for Light."_

He snapped his fingers, and four white swords made of light appeared around him. He snapped again, and the edges of the swords' blades became wreathed in black as Void wrapped around them. The blades shot forwards towards All For One, whose entire body slid left and right to avoid each of the blades. It was after the fourth blade was dodged did all four halt in midair and swivel around in the air to face him again. They moved again, but instead of shooting in a straight line, the four swords began swinging in different directions at the villain. He still managed to pull away with his unnatural dodging, though he was nicked in the sides a few times by the swings. He was disrupted by a dim flash of light followed by Kyomu appeared at his side, his right hand gripping one of the sword and pointing it right at All For One.

He thrust forwards, and All For One's counter was to swipe his left hand in the way. From each of the fingers on that hand sprouted black and red tentacles that rushed towards Kyomu. Before the tips of the tentacles managed to reach him, a black line appeared and cut through the five lines. All For One soundlessly retracted the bleeding tentacles back into his hand and leapt backwards.

Unfortunately for him, he'd dodged backwards into an awaiting Kyomu holding a black and white sword.

"Too slow!" he shouted as he dug the sword through All For One's lower left side. The blade pierced all the way through to the other side, and this time All For One let out a louder grunt of pain before he backhanded Kyomu. The hit successfully connected, but a layer of hardlight situated over the area in his chest where he was hit. Unharmed, Kyomu slid backwards all the way to the other side of the field while the sword in his hand shattered and the Void on it faded away.

"This has gone on for long enough." Black and red lightning arced over All For One's right arm as he rose it up to Kyomu. It began to twist and inflate once again- though, this time it was to a much larger degree, and that dark lightning was arcing wildly around the whole limb.

 _"Electricity? No, that's... that's power,"_ Kyomu realized as he looked at the arm. _"Those are the same kinda sparks Midoriya and Sen let out whenever they power up. Pure, raw power. That thing's charging up something big."_ He frowned, and then hid his left arm behind his back. _"I haven't got the invisibility trick down, and even if I did it'd probably be able to see me with whatever it's usin' to see. If I can't fool it, then I'll overwhelm it. So I need some help right now, bro."_

"Springlike Limbs. Muscle Enhancement times three. Kinetic Booster times four. Air Cannon." The villain rattled off the names of the Quirks he was using with the same flair one would use to read off a shopping list. Utter boredom mixed with contentment for the individual he saw before him. "My Quirk affords me the ability to use my stolen powers simultaneously, and even combine them, Shinka Kyomu. I'll pulverize you senseless using a combination of Quirks that would even bring the hardiest of heroes to their knees."

"Doesn't matter how big a blast you make, geezer," Kyomu claimed. To make his points, a few black lines appeared and disappeared at random intervals in the space between them. "Try all you want, but you can't break Void like the hardlight shields."

All For One said nothing in return, simply letting his arm continue to gain more and more power. It was when the arm appeared to be at the apex of its charge did Kyomu decide to erect a black wall of Void between them to attempt to absorb any sort of attack the older man attempted to throw at him. But, to Kyomu's surprise, an attack never came. Or rather, he never heard one go off as his vision was blocked by the solid black wall. What he _did_ hear was something that sounded like rushing air right behind him. It only took a moment of thought for him to realize what it was.

 _"Back on the train, Hikari mentioned it had a kind of warping Quirk. I expected it to use it by now, but so far it's just been maneuvering with raw speed. Is it saving it? Or is that specific power so limited that All For One can't use it in this situation?"_ He'd turned his head just enough so that his red eye could spot All For One standing right behind him with his arm aimed at his back. The arm behind Kyomu's back lit up with an immense white glow. _"Thought you'd catch me off guard 'cause I took my eyes off you? Not happening."_

To his credit, there was no hesitation between All For One appearing behind Kyomu and firing off his attack. It was so quick that he probably couldn't have done it any faster if he tried. But the attack never hit him. A completely white, glowing leg appeared and kicked up at the arm with enough force to redirect it upwards so the attack was sent up to the sky.

And what an attack it was. Though brief, Kyomu was forced to marvel at the fact that, even though the attack was shot upwards, it radiated so much force that he found himself being pushed into the ground. The air all around distorted as wind ripped past the area, and though he could hardly believe it, the heavy overcast of clouds above were cleared away completely from the blast.

He couldn't help but idly note that an attack like that would have wiped away entire city blocks regardless if it hit or not. Tens of them, possibly. He wasn't even sure he could have caught it all with Void. He wasn't going to let him try an attack like that again.

"You were so focused on dodging my Void and exploiting the opening I left you that you didn't notice the doppelganger I made using Light," Kyomu explained in a quiet mutter.

There was, indeed, a third figure between the two of them. A pure-white figure the with the exact same height and build as Kyomu, down to the white, glowing hair atop its glowing head. And like the rest of its body, its head was a featureless and completely white, save for two brightly-glowing red orbs where the eyes would be.

An indignant grunt came from All For One as he brought his arm down. In a flash of white, the doppelganger zipped to the other side of his arm, conjured a white sword with a black edge, and stabbed it into the bicep of the arm. Not a sound left All For One as the doppelganger hopped backwards to Kyomu's side.

"Numbers will not make a difference in this fight," All For One stated as he grabbed at the hilt of the sword sticking out of his arm. "Using a power you barely understand to conjure that shade is a futile effort."

"Doesn't look like that from where I'm standin'."

"Hmph." He put the sword in a crushing grip, and the entirety of the blade shattered and dissipated. All that was left was a large gash in All For One's arm that, while it remained open, wouldn't bleed. "I'll admit that you've done better than most. Though the damage you've inflicted onto me thus far is negligible, only one of the latest users of One For All can claim a similar feat."

"One For All?" Kyomu echoed. "The hell are you talkin' about? I rattle your brain so hard that you mixed your own name up?"

"You don't even know. It figures that he wouldn't tell you." All For One's masked head shook from side-to-side in disapproval. "It matters not. I can see I've underestimated-"

White swords with black edges erupted from the ground beneath All For One's feet mid-sentence, and he was forced to leap into the air. Some of the blades had slipped by All For One and left gashes all along his torso, but they only reached a few meters off the ground and All For One had stopped safely in the air right above them.

"Whatever, whatever, whatever..." Kyomu's red and blue eyes flared brightly, and the red eyes of the white shade besides him flared equally as bright. "Just die already, damn it."

Even more black and white swords phased into existence above All For One, with the blades pointed down at him. His body flew to the side just as the twenty swords above him dropped down and embedded themselves in the ground above where he'd been hovering. Unfortunately for All For One, he'd flown right into Kyomu, who'd jumped out of a Void portal to deliver a Light-infused kick to his side. Unfortunately for Kyomu, not only did his leg spewing a jet of light slam into the villain's side with no effect, but he felt the force he delivered eject from the spot he hit and cause him to go spinning through the air.

 _"It's got a Quirk like Sen's that redirects physical damage. Blunt shots are off the table."_ Light poured out of his left arm and leg like great spouts of fire, and the force stabilized him and allowed him to drop safely to his feet. _"Shouldn't matter as long as I can still cut its body with Void. But none of its wounds are bleeding... that body is more freakish than mine. Shallow wounds aren't gonna cut it here."_

As he thought this, All For One aimed his arm at Kyomu in an attempt to blast him once more with Air Cannon. There was a white flicker at the edge of his senses, and All For One just barely managed to dodge the white shade flew to his side and began swinging another black and white sword at him. All For One's upper torso unnaturally contorted and twisted in various directions to avoid the sword while his lower torso remained stationary in its floating position. The white shade went into a spin with the sword and spun right past All For One in an attempt to cut him, though the villain just quickly floated behind it. The shade stopped mid-spin and, with its side to All For One, pointed its free hand under the arm holding the sword and fired a beam of light at All For One.

For a fraction of a second, the villain's body tensed in a wait to suggest he was going to dodge the beam. However, it never reached him. Rather, it shot right into a Void portal that opened right in its path. Afterwards, another Void portal opened near All For One- followed by another, and another, and another. So quickly that it was almost simultaneous, a hundred small circular portals opened all around him. From one of those portals, the white beam from earlier exited it only to fly into another portal. The beam continued this pattern of randomly firing in an out of portals, though All For One ignored it entirely in favor of looking at the white shade who was facing him. The shade merely stared at him with its blank face as it glowed brightly. He didn't even flinch when hundreds more beams of light shot out of its body and into the portals all around him, only to continue to be redirected countless times among the portals scattered around him.

He did flinch when, in a burst of speed that trailed light behind it, the white shade flew into a portal and joined the hundreds of beams of light firing all around the villain in a dazzling display of light. Like the beams, the shade would zip out of one portal and disappear rapidly into another at a speed that it was nearly indistinguishable to the other beams. Periodically, he would become so distracted from trying to keep up with the beams of light that the beam of light that was the white shade would fly past him, and in a flash of black and white would administer a cut along the villain's body before retreating into the portal.

To Kyomu's frustration, however, as he ran in a circle around All For One and continued to try and throw his own swords of Void and Light at him, the villain would successfully dodge. Additionally, he would dodge any black lines that would rapidly form in an attempt to cut him. But he couldn't avoid the white shade using the other beams of light as camouflage. And when All For One tried to float away from the portals, they and all the beams of light that were facilitating their travel would follow.

 _"It can keep track of me. It can't keep track of the doppelganger,"_ Kyomu realized. _"Is it possible that the Quirks All For One is using to compensate for his sight can't lock onto the doppelganger because it's not a human being like I am? Because it's an extension of Hikari's Light Quirk and not a person? It managed to land that attack before when it redirected that big attack of its. And its losing the doppelganger easily in that field of lasers. But it's also possible its attention is spread so thin between me and dodging Void and the lasers that it can't pay enough attention to the doppelganger."_ Kyomu frowned, and his red eye flashed. _"Let's test it. If I'm right... then I can pull off a gamble that'll let me win at the risk of killing me. I'd like something more surefire-"_ He stopped with enough force for his feet to drag trenches through the ground, _"- but I honestly don't think it's gonna give me an opening any bigger than that. It's too good, and I'm running out of tricks."_

* * *

The portals hovering around All For One had constricted, and the beams continuously firing out of them only sped up that much due to the closer proximity. Despite the fact they'd been fired so long ago, none of those beams ever once lost an ounce of power and speed behind them. They never hurt him, of course- they never even touched him since he was able to dodge the beams. What he couldn't dodge was the damnable doppelganger hiding amongst the beams that was periodically slashing at him with that blade made from Light and Void.

 _"I cannot track the doppelganger,"_ All For One thought as he continued to dodge Kyomu's attacks. _"The laser fire is radiating the area with so much heat that it's rendering my Infrared Ray Quirk useless in seeing it. All the movement around me is making too much 'white noise' for Scan to be able to discern visible shapes. And the Search Quirk can only lock onto living targets, which that shade is not. I can't even hear it due to everything going on around me. But it seems that Shinka hasn't noticed yet. He wouldn't be utilizing the doppelganger in this manner if he had."_

But there was a silver lining to it. The beams had a pattern: each portal was connected to another, and a beam coming in one portal would consistently leave another portal. Not only that, but the hundreds of laser beams were following set paths and would enter and exit the same portals in the same paths. The exception was the white shade- try as he might, he couldn't avoid the shade due to the fact it didn't follow a set pattern like the laser beams were. But it mattered little in the end.

 _"He's realized that his attacks aren't doing nearly enough damage, so he's hoping to whittle me down to the bone,"_ he continued. _"A mediocre strategy at best, Shinka Kyomu. I've discerned the pattern of your attack. Your seemingly chaotic light show is flawed in that it lacks chaos, and thus can be exploited for the openings it provides. I've already memorized all of the openings within the pattern. It will no longer be able to hit me._

 _"But he no doubt has more tricks up his sleeve."_ Though he was successfully dodging almost every single attack, from beams of lights to swords to black lines, he couldn't help but note the look on the teen's face. Despite everything, his face was still set in a determined frown. And there was still the matter of the white shade landing a hit here and there on him. _"He's yet to give up. And there is no telling how long he can last with that body of his. The portable life support provided by this mask, the few Quirks I have that improve my own stamina, and the doctor's modifications will carry me far. Further than a normal human, at the very least, or even the above-average hero. But he's not a normal human, and I'm far past my prime thanks to the injuries inflicted upon me by All Might. It may benefit me to finish this fight in an expedient manner._

 _"Very well, Shinka Kyomu. I was saving this for when I once again faced All Might in his withering form, but you've become such a thorn in mys side that I feel you've earned this. So rejoice, young Shinka. You've pushed me as far as the number one hero. You've earned the right... to bear witness to my **Ultimate Combination**."_

* * *

 _"He took the bait. It's time for my **Final Gamble**."_

The portals all around All Foe One dropped in an instant, and with them closing the lasers were lost to Void. The doppelganger twisted in the air and blurred right to Kyomu's side in a white blur. The teen with the bi-colored eyes frowned deeply at the hovering villain before raising his right hand and snapping his fingers.

 _"Only Void can really damage it, so I'll have to bet it all on black."_ Eight rectangular portals with jagged, fluctuating edges appeared in a circle around All For One, with each rectangle's face being parallel to the ground, _"Hope I'm right. I'm dead otherwise."_

"Another paltry attack, Shinka Kyomu?" All For One asked, his voice nearly mocking in its tone. "Surely you've realized by now that it's useless. You can't defeat me no matter how many Quirks you possess."

 _"You wanna bet?"_ Kyomu thought, but otherwise remained as silent as the white shade next to him.

"Unfortunately, Shinka Kyomu, every show must end regardless of its entertainment value. You can at least die knowing that I truly believe I'll never find a source of entertainment as thrilling as the story of your existence. As thanks for providing me with this wonderful story..." His right arm began to ripple and contort as more black and red lightning arced around it. "... I've decided to end your using the Ultimate Combination of Quirks I currently have at my disposal."

The arm began growing. It wasn't a swell like the Air Cannon Quirk. The arm was rapidly becoming deformed as it increased in size and muscle mass, and soon enough it ripped through the whole sleeve of his suit. Even then, it only continued to grow.

"Springlike Limbs. Kinetic Booster times four. Strength Enhancer times three. Multiplier. Hypertrophy. Rivets. Spearlike Bones." Every Quirk rattled off by All For One only made the arm more and more grotesque. Arms grew from the main arm only to coil back around the root arm and fuse back into it to create a larger, malformed arm. Its muscles became so much that it was practically engorged, and there were even some spots where cords of muscle tore out from the skin and wrapped around the mutated limb. Bone-like rivets dotted its surface at random spots, as well as large spikes made from bone. The black and red electricity continued to angrily spark around the arm as it grew to a size that was larger than All For One's body. It was only when it reached that size did it finally stop growing.

It was monstrous. So monstrous that Kyomu's jaw had dropped open in shock when he saw the _thing_ attached to All For One's right side. A large, vile thing that could was less an arm and more a living horror.

"You call that unsightly thing the Ultimate Combination of Quirks?" Kyomu asked, though he was so stunned at the sight of the limb that it came out as a whisper. "Something must be wrong with the Quirk that gave you immortality. You'd have to be senile to think that abomination is anything ultimate."

"This limb has enough raw strength to kill even All Might," All For One stated. With how big the arm was, it was a wonder that the Quirk he was using to float in the air was even able to keep both him and the arm aloft, though the way he talked implied he wasn't struggling at all to handle the limb. "Imagine what will happen once I strike you with the Ultimate Combination. They won't even be able to find a stain to mop up and bury."

"I don't even wanna think about how many people you made suffer just to gather the Quirks to make that thing." The teen glanced at the white shade, and they both nodded to each other. "That said," continued Kyomu as he turned back to All For One, "how exactly do you plan on hitting me with that? You know the second you charge me with that monstrosity I'll just suck the whole arm up in Void."

All For One didn't have any words to counter Kyomu's argument. Instead, he wordlessly flexed his left hand as the fingers turned into the black and red, jagged tentacles. They shot down from his floating position right into the ground, and Kyomu didn't even need to feel the ground underneath him begin to vibrate to know what the play was.

He jumped up in the air just as the five spikes exploded from the ground. Alas, they came from completely different directions and angles, and while he managed to dodge two and open a portal to swallow the third, two had approached his blindside. He managed to react quick enough and make a hardlight shield to block the fourth one, but the fifth bypassed his defenses and sunk into his back. Kyomu, faltering from the sudden stabbing sensation in his back, lost his concentration and grunted outwards when the other four tentacles stabbed into his torso and kept him aloft.

The trouble didn't end there, though. The red, grid-like veins on the tentacles flashed, and Kyomu instantly felt his muscles contract. Worse, he saw the rectangles spinning around All For One begin to wildly fluctuate, the Light Quirk on his left side began bleeding light out like a white flood pouring from his body, and even the doppelganger on the ground began to flicker in an out of existence.

 _"Oh, man. This ain't good. These things are making my Quirks go wild. I can barely control them!"_ To make matters worst, he could see All For One begin to cock back that gargantuan fist. And, try as he might, he couldn't wriggle his way out from the tentacles digging into him and keeping him stationary in the air. _"They're pinning me in place,"_ he thought, _"and I'm dead if that hand gets to me. Gotta... get rid of them...!"_

Though it was little, he did have a little control over the Quirks. Light was practically drained at this point, but he could still feel Void- the control was there, just spread out due to the tentacles in his torso forcing him to overexert it. So, gritting his teeth, he forced the rectangles around All For One and the doppelganger to disappear entirely. The villain took this as his cue and punched towards Kyomu, and the momentum alone from the punch caused him to fly towards Kyomu at a worrying speed.

Panicked, Kyomu willed his out-of-control Quirk to form around his right arm. It was by no means a perfect covering- there were gaps all around his arm and it was spiking wildly in every direction-, but it was good enough for what he intended. He swiped his arm in front of him and let out the breath he'd been holding when his arm cut through three of the tentacles. He felt his control begin to come back, and he whirled around to cut the last two tentacles. With all five gone, Kyomu began to fall down, and it was just as his elevation lowered did All For One's giant fist sail right over him, close enough that he could of sworn a layer of skin was shaved off from the tip of his nose. A Void portal opened right under Kyomu, and the teen fell right into it and had it close right behind him.

All For One reeled his arm back to cancel out his momentum and stop himself midair. At the same time, the eight black rectangles appeared and began to spin around him once more, though this time they were facing upwards with their faces to All For One.

Humming in interest, All For One's head turned to one of the spinning panes of Void and followed it as it spun around him. And, using his Quirks, he could see it clear as day: Kyomu within the world of Void slowly walking in the opposite direction that the rectangles were spinning in. His footsteps were slow and his head pointed in the villain's direction, and when he reached the edge of the black pane, he transitioned to the back edge of the one behind it.

And then, rapidly, he held up his right hand, and from a pane to All For One's right a solid spike of black Void shot out. He just barely managed to dodge it and felt Void graze at his shoulder, but was otherwise unharmed. When Kyomu transitioned to another panel, he stuck his hand out again and another spike shot from a pane in front of All For One. Again, a narrow dodge, and it was here he realized that the spikes were remaining in place and trapping him within a spoke of Void. Two more time this was repeated, with four spike surrounding All For One with four more panes spinning around him.

A fifth spike never came. Instead, Kyomu stopped in the middle of the pane he was standing in and rushed forwards. All For One, for his part remained motionless and didn't even glance at which of the three remaining portals he would come out of. Right before he emerged, All For One did turn to one of the panes, and it was just as Kyomu flew out with Void covering his right arm did All For One's arm shoot out and grab around his throat.

"You surrounded me with Void portals and attempted to skewer me with those spikes," the villain surmised. "Though each portal was connected to a second, there was no pattern among them, and you attempted to confuse me. And when four were left, you jumped right through a portal thinking random chance would smile at you and give you an opening. Perhaps you even left the spikes there to try and inhibit my movement to improve your odds." His grip on the teen's throat tightened, and color began to drain from Kyomu's already pale face as the black panes around him began to fade. "But you forgot that I could track you with my extrasensory Quirks. I knew exactly which-"

Had a white sword with a black edge not plunged into his back and emerge from his chest, he would have continued. As it was, this was exactly what happened, and all All For One could do was tilt his head down wordlessly at the Quirk-made weapon pierce him.

"Yeah, that's what the doppelganger was for, dumbass," Kyomu grunted as he pried All For One's fingers from his throat, returning the color to his face and making the Void shapes around them solid once more. "You can't sense it like you can me, and you were too focused on seeing through my feint and stealing my Quirks to pay attention." He looked to the left at All For One's right arm. "And now you're pinned. So you can't dodge Void."

He swiped his right arm at the villain's right arm, and a black line briefly appeared going over the arm. Soundlessly, the limb detached completely from the villain's shoulder. All For One didn't even make a sound as the massive limb thumped onto the ground below him. It was when the sound of the arm hitting the ground reached their ears did Kyomu lunge forwards and grab him by the throat with his right hand. The sword in his chest disappeared, and in the same instant a white figure materialized next to Kyomu. The completely white being that was the same shape as Kyomu looked down at the villain with burning red eyes. And then its white body glowed an intense white as a dozen spectral arms materialized from the doppelganger's back, with each arm tipped with a tightly-clenched fist made entirely from light.

The villain would swear that the featureless, Light-made construct was almost leering down at him the same way Kyomu was as the fists rained down on him.

It was impossible for the human eye to follow the path the fists were taking, as all of the spectral arms were moving back and forth at a speed faster than a human eye and brain could process images. Again and again the fists of light would punch down on All For One's body, retract, and punch forwards again into what could only be described as a constant pillar of blurry light slamming into him over and over. And though his body was shaking violently from the colossal blows, he was held in place by the grip Kyomu kept on him as he and the white shadow standing next to him both glared down at the villain being pummeled with utmost contempt and hatred. This went on for seemingly minutes before, in less than a millisecond, the fists disappeared into the doppelganger's back. All For One, dazed and confused, missing an arm, and with most of his bones broken, could barely perceive using his Quirks the light gathering around Kyomu's left fist as he cocked it backwards.

And then the teen's fist, aided by a body enhanced through his mother's Quirk, the physical enhancement Quirks that had accidentally been placed in him, and the light propelling it forwards like a jet, smashed right into All For One's mask. It shattered like glass, and the face beneath wasn't even seen before the flesh around it deformed around the fist making an indent into the owner's skull.

But momentum soon caught up, and like a bullet, All For One's body shot right to the ground with such force there was the sound of a small explosion followed by a cloud of dirt being picked up. The black panes and spikes faded, and Kyomu and the doppelganger fell to the ground on their feet as they looked towards the dust cloud.

Panting heavily, Kyomu tore his eyes from the cloud to the white doppelganger. "Well, that was gratifying," Kyomu weakly mumbled as the shade met his gaze. "I can take care of the rest."

There was no confirmatory nod or gesture of any kind from the doppelganger. It merely faded away into particles of light that slowly swirled towards Kyomu before absorbing into his left side. Soon the only thing left were the two red orbs that hovered in the air and stared at Kyomu before they, too, faded to particles and were absorbed into Kyomu.

Kyomu stared at the spot the white shade disappeared in before sniffing and turning to the impact crater made by All For One's body.

The dust and dirt kicked up by his landing had just settled, and as Kyomu approached the edge of the crater, he saw first hand the fruits of his labor. He was still alive; his wounds, most noticeably the stump that was his right arm, still weren't bleeding, but he saw enough odd contortions in his body to know that most, if not all, his bones were broken. He was breathing heavily, and it was when Kyomu looked at his head did he finally behold the face behind the mask. Or whatever was left, seeing as the only face behind it was completely smoothed over in scar tissue from the mouth up and was as broken as the rest of his body.

He was, without a doubt, out of commission. Which served Kyomu's purposes well enough.

"So, I guess All Might did that to you after you tore his stomach out," Kyomu said as he stared at the wounded, panting face. "Can't say I blame you wearing that mask. You look hideous."

He actually laughed at that. It was a choked, pathetic laugh, but the fact he managed it despite the overwhelming pain he must have been in bit into Kyomu's ego. "I was never one to pay much mind to my outward appearance, even after the injury," he admitted, and he even smiled. "How did you know I couldn't track the doppelganger?"

"I figured it out back in that laser trap I made. When the portals shrunk in on you, I deliberately made it so that the lasers were firing at a pattern," Kyomu explained. "It was to test if you really couldn't track the doppelganger, or if your focus was so divided you couldn't pay attention. When I turned it into a pattern, you pretty much immediately figured it out and managed to dodge them. But you couldn't dodge the doppelganger, which continued slashing at you randomly. You proved you were intelligent enough to successfully keep track of everything, from dodging me and my attack to Void and all the lasers. But at the same time you inadvertently revealed that you couldn't track the doppelganger. You would have dodged it if you could otherwise.

"So," he continued, "I set up Final Gamble. I hid myself in Void inside of those interconnected panels under the pretense that I was trying to skewer you with Void. I was counting on you grabbing me when I jumped out of Void. I was really just using those spikes of Void to conceal the doppelganger as it snuck up from behind you. By that, I mean it was physically hiding inside of one of the hollow spikes. You were too focused on me to notice."

"I could have been feigning ignorance, though," All For One argued. "You couldn't have known for sure I couldn't track the doppelganger just from me recognizing a pattern."

"Yeah, but it was a good enough hint," Kyomu reasoned. "There were a lot of risks with my last move. I wasn't a hundred percent certain you couldn't track it, just reasonably certain. I knew from the first time you tried to steal my Quirk I would have a single moment, and I was hoping that having multiple Quirks would give me more time once you grabbed me. Time enough to think that single command for the doppelganger to act out. But you're right. I could have been wrong about having just enough time to have the doppelganger stab you or about you not being able to track it. That's what made Final Gamble a gamble." He walked to All For One's feet and crouched down. "But hey, it paid off in the end, so I'm not really complainin'."

"Indeed." Once again All For One laughed, but after a fit of coughs it tapered off into a defeated sigh. "To think it was not a user of One For All that finally defeated me once and for all. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it was the collateral damage of my Quirk-collection operation that did me in. So what happens now, Shinka Kyomu?"

Kyomu scoffed. "The hell do you think, genius?" A black and white sword appeared in his right hand, and silently, he raised it above his head.

He didn't even wait for All For One to get another word in edgewise before he thrust the sword downwards. Unfortunately, he didn't get the sound of the Void-edged sword plunging through the villain's heart. What he did hear was flesh smacking against flesh as a hand grabbed his wrist and stopped him mid-stab.

Letting out a deep exhale through his nose, the exhausted teen turned his head around. He couldn't say he was terribly surprised to see the red, white, and blue outfit of the number one hero standing right behind him. Nor was he that surprised to see said hero was the one grabbing his wrist at the moment.

The face was another matter. He was, of course, in his fake, muscled form, but even through the chiseled features and the sunken eyes he could see the emotions going through the hero's face. The absolute disbelief and bafflement at the display going on in front of him. In that moment, Kyomu could think of a number of reasons why the older man had that pained expression on his face. Seeing his archenemy defeated, and his student ready to kill him. Said student seemingly having undergone a strange transformation. A whole orphanage destroyed. Dead police and heroes all around from Hikari's Nomu.

Really, it was a wonder he was even keeping his composure. Now that the teen thought on it, it must have been the most confusing sight in the whole world to the hero. But despite all that confusion, he was still maintaining the visage of a hero and stopping him from killing a villain.

"Hey," Kyomu uttered in a blank greeting. "Let go of me. I have to kill it."

"Shinka... young Kyomu." It was amazing how much confusion could be conveyed in a simple tone of voice. All Might's voice was almost shaking as he spoke, and his blue, sunk-in eyes were rapidly darting from him to All For One. "What... what have you done? What happened to you?"

"All Might. I have to kill that thing. Let me go."

"You're..." The hero blinked, almost as if he was trying to dispel the image in front of him. He opened his eyes, and shook his head when he saw what he was seeing was reality. "I won't pretend to know what exactly is going on," he admitted. "I... I don't know how in the world the two of you met. I don't know how you managed to hold your own against him, let alone defeat him..." He swallowed heavily. "But no, young Kyomu. I cannot let you kill him."

At hearing those words, frustration began to shoot through the teen. "Why not?" Kyomu hissed. "He's right there. _Right there_ , All Might, and-"

"He's defeated, young Kyomu," All Might said. "There is... there's no further need for violence. The authorities can take over-"

"Authorities are for administering justice to criminals." Kyomu began pulling his wrist. All Might's face twisted into even further confusion when he felt the teen successfully begin to pull away from him. "You have to be human to be a criminal. This thing isn't human. It's a monster. It doesn't have human rights. It doesn't deserve to live."

"That's not for you to decide."

"Yes it is." Kyomu's eyes grew wide and manic. His face tightened from anger so much that veins began to bulge from his face. "He took everything from me. I beat him. It's nobody's choice but mine."

"The law-"

He couldn't finished, as at that moment a white fist made of light extended out from Kyomu's left shoulder and flew towards All Might. Though the hero was able to perceive the incoming attack, he was so bewildered by it that he could do nothing but allow it to punch him straight in the jaw. This, combined with Kyomu's resistance, proved enough from All Might to lose his grip and tumble a few meters away.

Kyomu, not missing a beat, whirled around and brought the sword down. He almost screeched in rage when, right as the tip neared All For One, the entire sword faded away. As a result, all that hit All For One was Kyomu's open palm. The teen picked his hand up and stared into his empty palm, but when he saw movement to his left and looked over to it he knew exactly what had happened.

There was a second hero there. His homeroom teacher, Aizawa. Though he couldn't see his eyes due to the yellow goggles he had over his eyes, the red glow seeping out from the vertical slits acting as visors was said enough. He was nullifying his Quirks just by looking at him.

"Aizawa...!" The name that was nearly snarled out of Kyomu was dripping with so much contempt that the teacher actually flinched when he heard it. However, he quickly shook himself back into focus and threw his hand forwards. Three bands of his capture scarf followed this and wrapped around Kyomu's body. Before he could even try and snap through the bonds, a strong hand fell on his shoulder. He didn't need to turn around to know it was All Might.

"Young Kyomu. Please stop resisting." He pulled the teen up to his feet, and then nodded towards Aizawa to approach them. "The police will be here soon to collect that man," he said. "Eraser Head will... escort you back to be restrained at the UA infirmary to treat your wounds. We will have to question you and turn you over to the police afterwards. Do you understand?"

For his part, Kyomu didn't say anything. He eyes never once left All For One. He only did look away when Aizawa shoved his shoulder and make him look up at his teacher's face.

He couldn't say he'd ever seen so much disappointment and sorrow on someone's face after he looked at the expression Aizawa was making. He was actually thankful that the goggles were hiding whatever look his eyes were making at him.

"What were you thinking, kid?" he mumbled as he turned Kyomu around and began marching him away from All For One and All Might, his shoulder slumped in defeat and breaths completely ragged as he walked forwards with his arms bound to his side and Quirks locked away from the red gaze at his back.

But then he heard it. The airy chuckles of the battered and beaten villain right behind him. All For One was still conscious and fully aware of the situation, and he was laughing at him. Kyomu actually felt his head throb from the anger and saw black spots dance through his vision, and had to take a deep breath before stopping in place.

"All For One." He didn't turn around to face the villain, but he raised his voice loud enough that the villain would surely hear him. "After I escape UA, I'm coming to kill you. You're not living to see tomorrow."

Even after he shut his mouth and continued walking forwards, even after he made the very real threat to the villain's life, he continued to laugh. It's the only sound that he could hear going through his head as he was escorted away.

* * *

It was only after the pair were out of sight did All Might finally turn to address All For One, who still lied broken on the ground. Even once they were gone, those wheezing chuckles still continued to pour out of his throat, and All Might couldn't help but grimace at the sight.

"I must be a sight for sore eyes, eh, All Might?" All For One asked. "How does it feel knowing that it wasn't you, your disciple, or any One For All holder who defeated me? That a young upstart like Shinka Kyomu managed to succeed where so many others failed? On his first try, too, no less."

"What have you done to him?" All Might asked, voice strained. "You... you destroyed his orphanage, didn't you?" He gestured to the remains, which, due to the fight between the villain and teenager, had been reduced to absolutely nothing. "After all this time, you come back just to... just to terrorize one of my students? Just... _why_?"

"It's not as if I planned to be defeated at this juncture. As loathe as I am to admit it, I underestimated that young man's capabilities. A fatal err on my part, really."

"But why Kyomu?" All Might pressed. "Out of all of my students, why him? Did you just pick him at random? Did you... did you assume I gave One For All to him? Did you attack him just to get to me?"

Once again, All For One laughed. "Oh, no. I already know you gave it to Midoriya Izuku. The relationship of hate Shinka Kyomu and I share is completely unrelated to the sordid history I share with you and that damnable Quirk."

"Then why!?" the hero demanded. "Aside from his brother, young Kyomu doesn't have anything to do with any of this!"

With a bloody smile full of crooked, broken teeth, All For One smiled. "Oh, you poor old fool. You know absolutely nothing." The smile widened. "The depths of secrecy Shinka Kyomu crafted for himself would put the web of lies you weaved around One For All to shame. You don't know a single thing about his true nature. About who he really is."

All Might opened his mouth to retort, and then stopped himself. He glared down at All For One's broken body, and then to the utterly destroyed landscape around them. "Perhaps not," he conceded through grit teeth as he looked towards where Aizawa and Kyomu had left his sight. "But I know that Kyomu is a true hero at heart. I don't know what tortures you put his soul through to twist him into that hateful visage I saw, All For One, but I swear I'm going to pull him from the darkness you've dragged him into."

"You've already lost him, All Might. That boy has already immersed himself in a world of darkness your light can never reach, let alone anyone else's. He's seen the faults in your society, and he knows those faults cost him everything. He's undergone a metamorphosis into a path separate from heroes and villains. His own path with his own justice." A withering sigh slipped past his bleeding lips. "I can still hardly believe he underwent the same transformation I did so long ago before Tomura managed it, under the tutelage of heroes no less. In another life, he would have been the perfect successor to All For One."

"I don't believe you. I don't believe a single word you say."

"Believe what you want, All Might. It won't make the truth disappear." At this, the hero scoffed, sent the pitying glare, and turned his back to him. "If you truly don't believe me," he continued, "then ask Shinka Kyomu. He has no reason to hide the truth from any of you any longer. I only regret that I won't be there to see the look on your face when he reveals everything."

Though he didn't turn to address the villain, All Might did wave his hand in a dismissive manner. "You're never going to see anything outside of a cell again, All For One," he claimed, his features set in a stony scowl as he stared ahead. "I'll personally make sure of that."

"I'm afraid I might not even make it to that cell, my old nemesis," All For One said. "But we will see. We will see."

No matter how hard he tried, All Might couldn't push the fact that the villain behind him sounded so sure of himself. It caused him no end to the unease that was plaguing him, and he couldn't help but wonder when the police would arrive so he could get back to UA as soon as possible. Back to UA so he could question his student and get to the bottom of all of this.

The fact he could still feel All For One smiling behind him only made him more uneasy.


	30. Chapter 30

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode 30- Monochrome**

* * *

With a soft sigh, the aged school nurse closed the door to the infirmary behind her and then turned to the man sitting in the waiting chair across from her. All Might, deflated into his thinner form with his yellow teaching suit hanging loosely off of him, had a dour scowl on his face.

Given the current circumstances, nobody could really blame him. But as it was, nobody, including All Might, even knew the full story of those circumstances. He aimed to change that.

"So how is he?" the hero asked after a few moments of silence.

"That boy always always did have an unnaturally high healing factor. I remember there was a point where I thought he had a compound Quirk like Todoroki and had a secondary regeneration Quirk, but then the file concerning his... unique biology made it to me." With a sigh, she shook her head. "The doctors behind writing that file really undersold just how severe the changes his mother's Quirk made on his body, you know."

"I know, Recovery Girl, but how _is he_?"

The old nurse pursed her lips and turned her head to the door. "I can't tell you why his hair and eye changed colors and why he now seems to possess multiple Quirks. You'll have to ask him how that happened. As for his injuries..." She turned back to All Might. "There was nothing fatal, but he wasn't exactly sporting anything minor, either. I healed everything, but..."

"'But'...?" All Might hedged.

"My Quirk expedites the body's natural healing process to instantly heal wounds at the expense of great energy loss to the patient. If he really fought... that man... and sustained all those injuries, he should be out cold right now."

"But he's not?"

"But he's not," she confirmed. "The only thing he's done since Aizawa dragged him in here and handcuffed him to the bed is give the wall a thousand-yard stare. He wouldn't even speak to me. And I don't know how he's fighting off the exhaustion."

It was All Might's turn to sigh. "I was afraid of that," he said.

"All Might, what happened out there?" Recovery Girl asked. "I'll admit I've had seldom contact with the boy since he began attending this school, but I've never... somebody his age shouldn't have a look like that in their eyes."

"I don't know, Recovery Girl," he admitted. "All I know is that man destroyed his orphanage, and everybody in it died. That a lot of police and heroes died in the process. _Somehow_ , young Kyomu... gained his brother's Quirk in addition to his own. And against all odds, he beat that man. I can't believe it, but he actually beat him." A soft groan left him as he rubbed at his forehead. "And if I was a second too late, he would have killed him. He looked like a rabid animal." He looked back up at the nurse. "Is he okay to talk to?"

"If you can," she said. "He's conscious, but unresponsive. Most likely shock given the situation, but... it wouldn't explain how he's forcing himself to stay awake."

All Might's face turned grim, but he gave the nurse a nod nonetheless. He had every intention of getting to the bottom of it all and talking some sense into the teen yet. Even if he dreaded the conversation that was to come- because, quite honestly, he didn't know what to expect.

But, right as he was about to get out of the chair, there was a commotion outside in the hall next to them, followed by intense shouting. All Might froze to his seat and Recovery Girl just shook her head.

"Midoriya, I understand you're concerned, but-!"

"Mr. Aizawa, please! I need to see-!" The stern, muffled voice outside the door was interrupted by a younger one, which was followed by an exasperated sigh from beyond the door.

"What you need to do is go back to class, Midoriya."

"But-!"

The rest of the argument was tuned out by All Might, who could only rub at his forehead in exhaustion. He'd expected as much from the young boy, he'd likely do the same in his situation, but that didn't change the fact that he was already so tired from all of this.

But he'd already made his choice before he'd even gotten out of the chair and made his way to the door. Not just because he felt Midoriya deserved to know, but because All Might honestly felt like he couldn't do this on his own.

"Mr. Aizawa," he announced as he opened the door and stuck his head out. Indeed, young Midoriya was there, staring up wide-eyed at both him and the teacher blocking the way. "It's... okay, I think. Let him in."

* * *

He'd had a lot of time between being taken back to UA and being chained to a bed to reflect on recent events. Namely, everything that had happened since he left for school this morning. All the faces of children he'd seen that were now dead thanks to a monster that had been his brother's corpse. All For One and all the words he'd said during their fight. The fact that All Might stopped him from killing him.

And how tired he was of all of it.

It was an exhaustion on multiple fronts. His body was lethargic to the point he was fighting to stay awake. He felt awful- his entire body still had a dull throb of pain from the power transferred into him. His wounds had at least been treated, but that had only made his exhaustion that much worse. But mentally? He was practically out the door.

 _"It's all just... this is too much."_ Languidly, his head rolled to his left wrist, which was attached to the frame of the hospital bed he was in via a pair of handcuffs. He couldn't help but think why they even bothered considering he could just use Void to cut the cuffs away. Or just snap them off with brute strength. He was too tired to care. _"What am I even supposed to do after I kill All For One?"_ he thought. _"I don't... Hikari's gone. My 'prospective' future as a hero likely got shot, and if by some miracle it didn't it will when I kill him for real. I can't be a hero. I refuse to be lumped in with degenerate villains. And I don't even... what's the point of it all if Hikari isn't here with me?_

 _"What's the point in any of this?"_

When the door to the infirmary open, he only just barely turned his head so he could see who it was. He wasn't surprised at all to see All Might in his real form walk in, and was only mildly surprised to see Midoriya in tow. Both of them had uncertain looks in their eyes as they approached the side of his bed, and it was only when they stopped next to him did he sigh and look back to the handcuffs.

"You know I can break out of this any time I want, right?" he asked, and accentuated his point by rattling the cuffs. "Hell, we even had a lesson on how to break out of these in the event of a villain capture. You taught that class, All Might."

"You're not going to break out of those," All Might claimed. "All you would end up doing is make things worse for you."

Kyomu rolled his mismatched eyes. "You are grossly underestimating the amount of stupid decisions I'm willing to make today." He looked to Midoriya. "You too, huh?"

"I'm just as involved in this as All Might," he answered in a simple tone.

That earned a scoff from the bedridden teen. "Yeah, I bet. With that Quirk All Might gave you. Speaking of which, is that Quirk named One For All by any chance?"

He knew the answer was yes when they both stiffened upon him mentioning the name. "I... didn't realize Midoriya told you," All Might admitted, and Midoriya coughed to the side besides him. "But where did you learn the name if not from young Midoriya?"

"All Foe One mentioned it, but didn't go into detail. I thought he just mixed his name up, but when I thought back on it, the context it was said in suggested differently," Kyomu explained. "So does one of you wanna explain why the Quirk has almost the same name as All For One?"

Midoriya's facial response was to bite his lower lip and look to All Might for help. All Might's response was a frown followed by a shake of his head. "We're here to question you, not-"

"I'll tell you everything," Kyomu interrupted, "but I wanna know what you have to do with All For One first. I wanna know what the deal with that Quirk is. Because otherwise I'm not telling you anything."

It was a completely unfair choice for him to give them, and they knew based on the looks on their faces, but Kyomu was beyond caring. He didn't have any good reason to conceal anything from them anymore, true, but on the other hand he didn't have that much of a reason to tell them anything, either. But there was still a small piece of the puzzle missing, and he felt it all revolved around that specific Quirk. All For One sure wasn't gonna tell him. All Might would, but likely not for free.

But he knew All Might would tell him. He had a desperate look in those eyes that were so sunken in Kyomu could barely see them. He wanted to know Kyomu's story as much as he wanted to know what the story behind the Quirk was. And even if he didn't go for it, it wasn't any skin off Kyomu's back. Today would end the same regardless.

Fortunately, he went for it.

"Very well," he said. Midoriya looked ready to protest, but was silenced when All Might rose a hand. "After his encounter with that man, he has a right to know, young Midoriya. I just ask that you uphold your word and give us the truth- the _full truth_ \- in return, young man."

"Pfft. Sure," he agreed.

"Then... I will start," All Might began. Midoriya went to sit in a nearby chair, and Kyomu shifted to a more comfortable position in his bed. Once they were both settled, the older male continued. "All For One, in the beginning of his reign when he realized the potential of his Quirk, had a brother who, at the time, was though Quirkless. I... can't say for certain what the circumstances surrounding their relationship was, but for whatever reason All For One had decided to use his Quirk to give his brother a Quirk of his own: the power to stockpile power.

"But, as it turned out, the brother wasn't Quirkless after all. He had a Quirk of his own before All For One gifted him his second Quirk. His own, original Quirk was a Quirk that could be passed on to others." He waited for a reaction from Kyomu, but the teen continued to stare at All Might blankly. He cleared his throat awkwardly before speaking once again. "The two Quirks blended together and fused into one, singular Quirk: the ability to stockpile power and then pass that power onto another, who would then continue to stockpile that power and pass it on, and so on, and so on. Ever since the Quirk was conceived, its users have tried and failed to stop All For One and his evil once and for all, each and every one. They would eventually find a successor and pass the Quirk on. I am... was," he corrected, "the eight holder of the Quirk. Young Midoriya is the ninth."

"And you just happened to be the one to get the Quirk when it was powerful enough to take on All For One," Kyomu surmised. "Except you didn't. You dropped the ball and let that thing live."

All Might flinched, and then let out a weary sigh. "It wasn't by choice," he said. "I... it wasn't right, but I... he'd taken my master, the seventh holder," he said. "She had stayed behind to fend him off while I, wounded, was dragged away. All For One, of course, had killed her, and it was only when I had finally mastered One For All and had personally taken down All For One's empire did I finally fight him. But I was a bit reckless, and was blinded in my anger towards what he'd done to my master. What he'd done to all the innocents he'd wronged over the years. My sloppiness combined with his prowess allowed him to land the grievous injury that turned me into what you see today. But, even with my insides spilling out of me, I... I managed to land that hit on him." He grimaced and turned his head to the side. "I wasn't thinking about bringing him in to justice at that moment. I wasn't thinking about being a hero. I was... angry, for both the my wound. For the loss of my master. I hit him with the intent to kill." He exhaled slowly, and then faced Kyomu again. "I thought he died that day. He'd lost his entire face when I punched him. His body had shown no signs of life. I... truly thought he had died that day, young Kyomu."

"Don't use my first name." He watched the both of them wince at his words, and when they remained silent when he gave them a chance to speak, he opened his mouth again. "So what's going to happen to All For One now?" he asked.

"For now he'll be hauled off to the maximum-security villain prison, Tartarus," All Might answered. "He's likely be held in an isolation cell and connected to life support."

"No death sentence?" Kyomu questioned.

At that, All Might grew uncomfortable both from the question and from Kyomu's scrutinizing glare. "It isn't that simple," he said. "All For One is... meticulous in covering his tracks. The fact we don't even know his true identity alone means the Japanese government can't give him a death sentence, and evidence pinning him to crimes is, well, sparse. But considering what happened at the orphanage, I'm confident he can be locked away for life."

"So you're gonna hook that monster to life support and lock it in a room for the rest of its literally immortal life?" Scoffing, Kyomu shook his head. "Genius move, All Might."

All Might's eyes hardened. "And you would rather take his life, young Shinka?"

"It's the practical thing to do," he reasoned. "It's the _smart_ thing to do. Hell, they've given other villains the death penalty for less things, and I know for a _fact_ it's done stuff to warrant that sentence a hundred times over."

"But you've no physical proof."

"I don't need proof when I know that it did it all, All Might. Proof's for judges."

"And you are neither judge, jury, nor executioner!" All Might snapped at him. "You're a hero in training who upholds the law in the name of justice-!"

"Justice, huh?" Though his tone was subdued, there was a certain ice behind his tone that cause'd All Might's mouth to snap shut at the interruption. "You know, all my life I've been told the justice system is the absolute for determining right and wrong and preserving order in this country. Those claims were hammered even harder into me ever since I started going into this school. But ever since I've lost my brother for the first time, I can't help but feel the system is broken. That it doesn't work. That instead of protecting me, it's ruined my life. Why do I need to listen to a system so broken it's been detrimental to my life, All Might? Midoriya? Why do I need to defend something that hates me, and that I hate in turn?"

Midoriya, who had been silently fuming in his chair, sharply rose up from his seat and rounded to the edge of Kyomu's bed. "How can you say that?" he asked. "What do you mean the justice system doesn't work? Of course it works! The police stop criminals! Heroes stop villains! And, and sure sometimes somebody gets hurt, or even worse killed, but it's the fault of the villains who would commit those acts! The system exists so heroes and police can do their best to protect people!"

A deep sigh from Kyomu. "Then why did the system let a monster like All For One be free for so long?" He didn't get a response from the two. "Why did the system send my brother to prison when he was innocent?"

The silence that followed this statement was almost unnatural. Kyomu's face remained completely blank and emotionless. All Might's eyes and Midoriya's eyes scrunched in confusion, and their reactions afterwards were mainly the same. They'd blinked, tried to focus on Kyomu's face as they processed the statement he'd made, and then they'd slowly reeled back when the full force of what he said finally hit them.

"Young Shinka..." All Might slowly said, "what, exactly, do you mean?"

"Well, I said I'd tell you everything. I'm starting at the beginning." He took a deep breath, and Kyomu fully turned to the pair before he began to explain. "As you probably know, All For One was the one behind creating the Nomu. Him and an accomplice had been stealing people's Quirks to put them inside of dead bodies they'd revived through some obscure process. He was interested in our mother's Quirk, Genetic Hardening, so he'd sent an agent of his to our house to wound my mother and send her to the hospital, where her power was supposed to be stolen. But me and my brother caught the villain in the act of stabbing our parents. The event was traumatic enough to awaken my Quirk, and since I didn't have any control over it at the time, it went wild. Everything was consumed in Void: our house. Our parents, who had been bleeding out on the floor. The villain. The only thing spared was my brother and I.

"When the police found us and questioned us, Hikari had covered for me and lied, saying he'd been the one to kill them to spare me prison. Me, being the coward, had put the blame on him at the same time to try and save myself. So, you see, Hikari was innocent. I killed my parents and that villain."

"But... b-but you..." All Might stuttered, and then shook his head in disbelief at the words he was hearing. His face looked even more gaunt when he looked back to Kyomu to continue to listen to him.

Midoriya was completely silent, stunned in shock. The only other noticeable change was that his eyes were beginning to glisten.

"Some time later, when I was ten, a villain had tried to rob me," Kyomu continued. "I accidentally killed him with Void. It was instinctual. The knife was coming towards me, and subconsciously, I had activated Void and killed him. A hero had come to investigate, and I had lied about there being a villain. A bit later, I did research on the villain who had attempted to abduct our parents, whom at the time I had assumed had just been a random thief. That man, Hirose Kenji, had been arrested multiple times for similar crimes. I learned later it was due to the fact that All For One pulled strings behind the scenes that he was released prematurely so many times, but at that moment I had thought that the hero society was purposefully letting villains back into society to continue to hurt others. I was angry at the justice system for its negligence. I was angry at villains for what they did. I had lost faith in heroes, who could not defend me. So I took matters into my own hands.

"I would sneak out of my orphanage at night and kill villains. I would hide their bodies and any evidence in Void to avoid it ever tying back to me. One time, I was forced to kill a hero who had seen me."

They were shaking now, the both of them. All Might in, based on the look on his face, abject horror mixed with shock. Midoriya was harder to read. His head had bowed down, and his hair had shadowed over his eyes, but the streams of tears running down his cheeks were plain to see. His mouth wasn't open and gaping like All Might's, though. It was fully clenched with all his teeth bared, and the hands at his side were tightly balled into fists.

"Young Shinka..." All Might croaked, "say it isn't so." Eyes widened in disbelief, he looked down at his own knees and shook his head. "Just... just tell me you're lying for whatever reason, that you're being coerced into saying all this. Just don't... please don't tell me all of this is true, young Shinka."

"Of course it's true," Kyomu said. "What do you think happened to Stain?"

A choked gasp left All Might, and he began to shake again. Midoriya just started to breath harder.

"Anyways, I wound up on the hero path since I figured getting access to villains would be easier as a hero. Hikari, after escaping prison, wound up with the League of Villains out of mere circumstance more than anything else, and pretty much just rolled with it," he continued. "He legitimately did want to change society so that a situation like ours never happened again. Eventually he became sympathetic with them, because apparently their leader, Shigaraki, had nearly the same problem we had in that his Quirk accidentally killed his family. For the most part, at least," he added after a short pause. "But over time he began to become disillusioned with their goals. I began to question my own... villain crusade, if you want to call it that, and wondered if there was even a point anymore. Then Akame happened.

"That incident last week with the mass amnesia everybody had for a day? That was Hirose Kenji's brother, Hirose Akame. He knew everything and used his mass mind control Quirk to try and get his revenge on us. He blamed us for his brother's death, you see. We stopped him, and we dragged some truths out of him. It was him who told us of All For One's existence and revealed to us that it was all his fault that our parents were dead and that we were thrust into this situation. We killed him after and agreed that, after Hikari cut ties with the League and killed All For One, we would leave Japan. He gave up on reforming society. I gave up on killing villains, as I wasn't seeing noticeable results. We just wanted to leave it all behind and start new somewhere else. We just wanted to be a family again."

He stop, and a shallow breath rattled our from his throat. Kyomu had to swallow a large lump in his throat and sighed out loud before he resumed.

"But All For One killed him when he tried," he explained. "It killed him and turned his body into a Nomu. It sicced it on my orphanage to lure me. I killed my brother's Nomu. All For One approached me, it made a big speech, we fought." He stopped himself and flashed his Light Quirk on his left side briefly, which caused the pair to jolt slightly. "It grabbed me and tried to steal Void, but I tricked it into grabbing onto a arm I severed from Hikari. That surprised it enough that I wounded it and managed to get away, but doing so caused some... unexpected feedback. It accidentally stole Light from the corpse, but didn't fully absorb it, so when I broke free the Quirk got into me. It might have been more than just Light now that I think about it, because I got a lot stronger and faster, but, well, it doesn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. I was only able to beat All For One because it accidentally transferred those powers into me. You know the rest." He exhaled, and leaned his head back into the pillow on his bed as he stared ahead. "That's the general gist of it all, anyways," he finished. "So now you know everything."

Their reactions were largely different between one another. All Might seemed to be at a loss for words. Shoulders were slumped, his head was hung, and his eyes had a far-off, distant look to them. A few times a low hum sounded in the back of his throat, almost as if he was attempting to speak, but he just couldn't find the words.

Midoriya threw his chair hard enough against the wall it shattered completely. It was enough to jolt All Might from his stupor, and Midoriya, with green sparks arcing off him, almost viciously turned to Kyomu with a face of sheer rage.

"So that's it, huh?" The bitterness to his tone was enough to make even Kyomu do a double take. He'd seen Midoriya upset, but this was something else. This was a kind of anger he'd never expected the other teen to ever muster up, let alone direct at him. He was practically a different person. "You find out your Quirk lets you get away with crimes, so you decide to be selfish with it and murder other people? Murder a _hero_? Shinka, what were you thinking!?"

"I was thinking I was doing a better job than the other heroes."

Midoriya almost hit him for that. His closed fist came within centimeters of Kyomu's face, and he felt wind rush past his face. But Kyomu didn't budge an inch from the act, and that only seemed to make Midoriya angrier.

"You're no better than All For One," Midoriya claimed.

This time Kyomu did react, and his eyes darkened. "Say that again, Midoriya," he dared. "Compare me to that thing once more time. See what happens."

"I don't need to say it again to believe it." The green-haired teen pulled his fist back and gave Kyomu a scathing glare. "If it was just the thing about lying about the circumstances of your parents' deaths, I could understand. It was a terrible, unprecedented incident. It should never have happened. I'm truly sorry you had to go through all of that." He grit his teeth and flung his hand to the side. "But you don't get to... you don't get to murder other villains just because you feel terrible about it, Shinka! You don't get to murder a hero just to protect yourself! Nothing in your past justifies taking any one of those lives! You... y-you...!" He let out a frustrated noise, clutched at his hair, and turned his back to Kyomu.

"You were supposed to be a hero!" Midoriya screamed, and then turned back to Kyomu while tearing his hands back down to his side. "You were supposed to help people! You wanted to help people! And everybody else- we were your friends! Everyone in 1-A! You weren't alone!"

"I know I wasn't," Kyomu muttered. "But my actions by the time I met you had gone too far. What would have had me do? Turn myself in?"

"Yes!" he yelled. "And I know it wouldn't have been easy! I know you would have forever lost your opportunity to become a hero! I know you would have been classified as a villain and imprisoned! But it would have been the right thing to do, Shinka! You should have known that when you were training to be a hero!"

"But I was never a hero, Midoriya," he said. "I was a fraud through-and-through the whole time. I told you. I just wanted an easier time killing villains."

The words hung in the air between them for a few seconds, and like All Might, Midoriya's shoulder slumped and a heavy breath left him. It was almost as if all the anger left his body along with that breath, as the only thing left in his expression after his exhale was exhaustion and raw disappointment. So much disappointment that it somehow made Kyomu uncomfortable.

"And your friends?" he quietly asked. "Me? Eikyo? Everyone in 1-A? Was all that fake?"

The teen with the black and white hair shook his head. "You may be surprised to hear this, but no. It wasn't." Evidently it was surprising based on the way Midoriya's head perked up just the slightest bit. "The people in that class were the first people to ever accept me, Midoriya. Everybody else always treated me like a freak because of my natural abilities. My brother and parents loved me because I was family. The orphans loved me because I was one of them. But you all were the first people to accept me for who I was, not what I was." Kyomu paused, and he averted his gaze from Midoriya's. "I... truly valued the relationship I shared with everybody in 1-A, Midoriya. That was never a lie."

"But protecting the real lies mattered more than our bond."

"I guess it did."

A disappointed sigh from Midoriya. "Okay." He turned towards the door, walked towards it, and opened it halfway before stopping. "I need to go tell everybody," he said. "But just... just tell me one thing, Shinka. Do you at least regret any of it?"

"I regret that the person I loved more than anybody else in the world died," Kyomu answered. "I don't regret anything else."

The hand of the shorter teen tightened around the door handle momentarily, and when he pulled it away the handle was noticeably dented. "That's too bad," he said, and then disappeared from sight as he left and closed the door behind him.

Silence continued to hang in the air well after Midoriya left. Minutes seemed to pass as Kyomu rested his head on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. He didn't even acknowledge All Might, who continued to stand in sheer shock next to him. But, just when Kyomu felt his eyelids become too heavy to keep open, the number one hero decided to speak.

"I'm sorry, young Shinka." He honestly sounded like he'd aged a decade in that one sentence alone. There was so much remorse and regret packed into that once sentence that it didn't even sound like the same person he'd been talking to previously. "I've truly failed you as hero and as a teacher. I should have noticed before it was too late. I could have done something to prevent all this. It was my duty as the number one hero."

"I know. This really is all your fault." As he said this, Kyomu didn't bother to tear his eyes off the ceiling. He did, however, see All Might freeze in his peripheral vision. "You and that Quirk. Dragging everybody into the crossfire between All For One and One For All's feud. You failing to kill that thing. You actively preventing its death now that it's captured. It's all your fault." Kyomu continued to stare up at the ceiling, even as All Might reached a hand out for him. "Just get out of my sight," he said, giving All Might paused. "You failed, I failed, everybody failed everybody. Just leave. I don't have anything else to say to you."

He truly did mean all the words he said, but he was just too tired to argue any further with anybody. He just didn't have the energy anymore. He just wanted a little more time of peace.

"... Very well, young Shinka." The sound of light footsteps retreated towards the door leading out of the room, and like Midoriya, paused right at the room's threshold. "I hope you can eventually find peace with what you've done, young Shinka."

There was a pause as he waited for a response, but when none came from Kyomu, he sighed, left, and closed the door behind him. Kyomu had barely heard the door close before hid eyes finally shut and he drifted off.

* * *

 _Black and white in a sea of gray, stretching out infinitely at either side and separated by a just-as-infinite divide of gray._

 _There, in the distance. At the edge of the gray. There's a shape._

 _Black and white began to grow closer._

* * *

Once again, he heard the door open and was roused awake. The sun was still shining into his room. Not much time had passed, if any at all. Either that or it was the next day.

Kyomu turned his head. Not to his surprise, he found some of his classmates there. Sen at the forefront. Kaminari and Kirishima was behind him. Further back, near the door, were others. Todoroki, Ashido, and Iida. There may have been more in the room beyond, but Kyomu could see that far.

What he could see were the tears flowing down freely from Sen's orange eyes and rolling down his cheeks.

"I'll save you some time," Kyomu said, voice weak and tired. He must have only been out for an hour or so if he was still this tired and their reactions were this intense. "Yeah, everything Midoriya told you is true. What do you want?"

"... I don't even know what to say," Sen mumbled. "Kyomu, I... just, why?"

"Midoriya didn't tell you?"

"Yeah, he did, but is seemed like such a shallow reason for somebody as great as you that I didn't believe it," the bald teen said. "Guess I was mistaken."

"Mm. Guess so." Kyomu's head rolled away from Sen and looked back up to the ceiling. "For what it's worth, you were a really great friend. The best one I ever had," he added. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way. You didn't deserve to hear it from Midoriya. It should have been from me."

There was a deep sigh from Sen as he wiped away the tears from his eyes. "And you're not sorry for anything else? The lies, the-the murders? Any of that?"

"No."

Once again, stunned silence from everybody involved. Sen just stared at him wide-eyed. Kaminari honestly looked heartbroken and had his own set of tears. Kirishima reaction looked similar to Midoriya's, in that his teeth were grit and he was shaking in anger, and yet he, too, was crying. Ashido and Tsuyu couldn't even look at him and turned away. The sorrow in Todoroki's widened eyes was the most emotion Kyomu had ever seen the other teen display.

Finally, Sen turned around. "Alright, we're done here. Come on, guys. I can't... I can't do this right now."

Kyomu didn't even wait for them to leave the room before his eyes closed again.

* * *

 _The object in the distance was growing closer._

 _The gray sea dividing black and white shrunk ever smaller._

 _Black and white began roiling on either side like the sea in an angry storm._

* * *

He groaned this time when he opened his eyes once again. Still tired. Still bright sunlight pouring in through the window. Not much time had passed.

This time when he looked to his right, he saw a strange sight. A small, white, anthropomorphic bear-mouse... thing, wearing a suit with a scar over his eye. He was calmly sitting in a chair so that the two were at eye level. Looking past him, Kyomu could see the door was open, and he could see Aizawa just outside the door.

"Mr. Principal," Kyomu greeted, voice low and raspy as he turned back to the sitting thing. "I've heard you make announcements and I saw you at the exams we took a bit back, but I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with you."

"Though I try my best to maintain a good repertoire with my students, I try not to get involved with their day-to-day lives," the principal responded, his voice high and calm. "I don't suppose I need to tell you why I'm here, then?"

"Based on the dour frown you've had ever since I woke up, I'd assume that you're here to tell me I'm expelled from UA," Kyomu guessed, his voice equally as calm if not rough.

Mr. Principal's muzzle lowered. "I'm afraid so," he confirmed. "Charging off on your own to face off against an incredibly dangerous villain without so much as a provisional hero license is one thing. We could have made a case for emotional turmoil due to the unfortunate loss of your orphanage. But..."

"But you can't have a student who confessed to murdering villains," Kyomu finished. "And a hero. And it wouldn't be a stretch to say that my chances of ever becoming a hero anywhere are completely shot."

"I'm afraid so," he said with a nod of his furred head. "All Might says that you were planning on leaving regardless of how your plans involving that man turned out. I suppose that's why you don't sound too surprised." He turned his head to the side. "My condolences for your brother."

"Mm-hm." Kyomu nodded to the door. "You have heroes here to guard me until the police come to collect me for a formal inquiry?"

The principal nodded. "You... did claim to take that villain's life right before Eraser Head escorted you away."

"And I aim to make good on that promise, Mr. Principal," Kyomu claimed. He rose his right hand for emphasis, and a few black lines briefly appeared. "Just give me a bit more time to recover and both me and that villain will be out of your fur."

"And this is why I was forced to post guards," the principal said, voice morose and form slumped. "Please do not try to make things more difficult than they are, Shinka. The students are already extremely rattled by everything you've revealed today. All Might went so far as to request some time off to reflect on current affairs. We had to go as far as to restrain you as a safety precaution."

Kyomu snorted. "My safety, or All For One's?"

The animal sitting next to him didn't so much as flinch. "All For One is to be processed at the closest police station before an armored carrier transports him to Tartarus," the principal informed him. "Justice will decide his fate, Mr. Shinka. And I'm afraid that, as the principal of this institution and a law-abiding citizen, I cannot allow you to leave." He blinked his black, beady eyes and sent Kyomu a pleading look. "So I _implore_ you to not make this any more difficult than is needed. Please."

But he received no response. Kyomu had already laid his head back and closed his eyes.

* * *

 _The object was finally right there. A house._

 _The line of gray separating black and white was almost completely gone._

 _Black and white began crashing against one another._

 _The door to the house-_

* * *

\- Opened, and Kyomu, dazed, stepped inside. After stepping past the inviting welcome mat, he looked back at the outside- at the turmoil of black an white colors that filled the entire void of nothingness outside- and promptly shut the door behind him.

"Where am I?" he wondered to himself. It certainly couldn't be reality; last he checked, the world wasn't... whatever was happening outside. And when he looked at a mirror, he saw himself before he'd absorbed Light. Hair all black and eyes all blue. He was even wearing black clothing and not the shredded remains of his school uniform.

He didn't even know _what_ that was outside. Only that he'd seen a house in the distance, and he decided to go to it because there was quite literally nothing else but opposing colors outside. But as opposed to the utter chaos outside, the inside of this house was completely normal. Silent. Well furnished, too.

And... familiar.

"Wait... this is..." He felt waves of nostalgia begin to hit him as he navigated the halls of this house and made his way through a kitchen. For e brief moment, the spotless tiles he stood on flashed with blood, and there were two bodies lying on top of it. He blinked, and the floor was immaculate. He moved on and found more thing that struck familiarity with him. Random knickknacks and household objects. Family photos. Family photos of him. His brother. His parents.

This was his home. The one he'd spent the first four years of his life in.

So confused was he at this that he'd wandered right into the central living room in a stupor, looking around in stunned amazement at the environment. It couldn't have been real, but everything looked clear. Tangible. The sofa in the living room, the drawers that were half-open and spilling out with odds and ends, the TV...

The teenager with white hair and red eyes sitting on the sofa staring right at Kyomu.

"Hey, man." Hikari didn't even seem to acknowledge the bewildered look that flashed onto Kyomu's face, and merely gave him a small smile and waved. "So I, uh... kinda died. Sorry about that."

That was as far as he got before a black blur crashed right into him. It was Hikari's turn to be stunned when he looked down to see Kyomu pressing his face against his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around his torso.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry for everything!" He was openly sobbing against Hikari, who emitted a low sigh and wrapped his own arms around his crying brother that was shaking against him. "I shouldn't have... told them you did it! It should have been me! You wouldn't have had to go to the League! You wouldn't have died! It's all... I-I'm so sorry, Hikari..."

"Shhh, sh-sh-sh." Quietly shushing his sobbing brother, Hikari stroked his hair lightly while leaning back into the sofa. "I know. It's alright. I made the choice for you. None of it was your fault."

"I shouldn't have... I should have just went to All For One instead of-"

"You wouldn't have won," Hikari stated. "I'm glad it was me. You pulled off something impossible and managed to beat him." A small laugh left him. "You always were such a cheater, little brother."

The only response he got to this was louder crying out of Kyomu. Silent tears of his own fell out from Hikari's crimson eyes, but he merely leaned back and let his brother let all his sorrow out.

* * *

It was hard to say how long they lasted like that, but eventually it had ended with Hikari sitting on the couch while Kyomu laid on it with his head in his brother's lap. Hikari, leaning back with his arms slung over the top of the sofa, looked out the window at the crashing colors outside. Kyomu was content with looking up at his brother's face.

"Hikari. What is this?" Kyomu asked. "Where are we?"

"In your head?" The tone the white-haired teen used was unsure, but he didn't sound overly concerned as he gave a shrug. "I dunno, somewhere in you. I wound up here right after All For One accidentally gave you my Quirk." He frowned and scratched at his chin. "There were a couple others, too. You got more Quirks than just mine, but they were... blank? I dunno. They didn't talk or anything. Dunno what their deal was. Maybe that doctor friend of All For One's managed to clone Quirks. It'd explain where he gets all the things. He couldn't possibly have kidnapped that many people without gaining attention."

Kyomu's face scrunched up in confusion. "So, what, your... soul wound up with me or whatever?"

Once again, Hikari shrugged. "I dunno. Quirks are weird, man." He looked at his left and, and a film of white light crawled up it. "Could be some facsimile of Hikari got transferred with Light. Could be you're finally losing it. Does it really matter?"

"No," Kyomu mumbled. "I don't care. I... you're here. That's all I care about."

"Mm." Hikari hummed. "So you told the others," he said. "How'd that go?"

"To be honest? Underwhelming. But I guess I can't really blame them. How many bombs did I drop on them in a single afternoon?" He knew he couldn't have possibly processed all that information so quickly. Not if it was that shocking. "I still hurt them, though," he said, "and it... didn't feel good. I think they've lost all their faith and trust in me."

"Can you really blame them?" Hikari asked.

"Not really." Blue eyes flashed to the window. "What's going on outside? All the black and white?"

Another hum. "Our Quirks are merging." He said it with such simplicity that it took Kyomu for a turn, and he looked back up to Hikari with confusion in his eyes for clarification. "I don't really know why," Hikari elaborated. "It's happening on its own. Void and Light are melding together into something else. It seems that the other Quirks are Mutation-types that improved your physical abilities, so you don't have to worry about those, but..."

He trailed off, and he brought his left hand into Kyomu's field of view. Kyomu didn't show much reaction to the fact that the tip of the hand and all the fingers were slowly disintegrating, but he did let a pained breath out from his throat.

"All Might said that the One For All Quirk was made when two Quirks fused into one," Kyomu mumbled in a toneless breath. "Maybe it's just something that happens."

"Maybe," Hikari agreed, "but whatever the case, I'm only here because of Light. I'll be gone once the Quirks finish fusing."

"Oh." The message behind his words were clear. They didn't have much time.

It was a sobering thought. There was so much he wanted to say to Hikari, but for the life of him, he just couldn't think of what to say. He wanted to talk, but couldn't. He wanted to just stay here with Hikari, but the knowledge that he was slowly disappeared destroyed any calm he had lying in his brother's lap.

He didn't know what to do.

"So what happens when you wake up?" It was almost as if Hikari had read his thoughts, and almost absentmindedly he began stroking Kyomu's hair with the hand that wasn't slowly disappearing. "You got any idea?"

"Go after All For One, I guess. I don't know." There wasn't any energy to Kyomu's voice, and his body had grown so slack that he could move if he wanted to. "They say they're sending it to Tartarus in an armored car. Place is a fortress, so... I gotta get it before they bring it there."

"Makes sense." Hikari glanced down at Kyomu's body, and a sad laugh left him as he looked back up at the window. "You haven't eaten or drunken a single thing since Sunday, have you?"

Kyomu could barely muster the will to shake his head. "Was too worried," he answered.

"Of course." Red eyes rolled as Hikari's pale hand ruffled his brother's hair. "Dehydrated, under nourished, completely exhausted, your body being torn apart from the inside from all these Quirks... our bodies are tough, Kyomu, but we're still human." His mouth flattened out, and he took away his hand. "I'm not saying you can't do it," he added. "I'm just saying that... you might not make it past doing it. You're past your limit already."

He shook his head. "I don't care," Kyomu mumbled.

"You could just stay in the hospital bed, you know. Let your body recover. You'd live."

"There's no point in living without you," Kyomu responded. "I... no longer have a future. I don't want to live in a world without you." He looked up, and a wry grin spread across his mouth. "Besides. I might make it. It's not a sure thing I'll die if I go for it."

Hikari sighed. "Sure, Kyomu." He leaned back into the sofa. His arms had disappeared by this point. "Sure. Do whatever you want. It's fine."

They both went silence, and both pairs of eyes looked out the window of their house to the world outside. Black and white was still crashing and warping around each other.

"Hey, Hikari?"

"Yeah?"

"You know I love you, right?"

"I know. I love you too, Kyomu."

Kyomu hummed, and then waited a few moments. "Hikari?"

"Mm-hm?"

"Do you think mom and dad would be disappointed in us?"

"I dunno. Maybe mom."

"Yeah, maybe," Kyomu agreed. "Are you still there, Hikari?"

Silence.

"Hikari?"

* * *

Kyomu's eyes snapped open, and he found himself back in the hospital bed.

His body once again had the sensation of being on fire, but by now he was so numbed he couldn't feel the pain.

Sitting straight up on the bed, the colors of Kyomu's hair began to swirl around, and the black and white halves began to mash and blend together. His blue and red eyes began to flicker, and silver sparks began to arc around his body. Even as items in the room began to shake and fall down, and his hair began to wave uncontrollably around him, all Kyomu could do is close his eyes and let a single, pain-wracked sob escape him.

And then he opened his eyes again.

* * *

To an outside observer, it would appear as if a massive, silver pillar of light shot straight up into the sky from where the infirmary in the UA school building was. To those inside, it would just feel as if a earthquake rocked the building, but then quickly subsided after around five seconds.

To those near the infirmary, it was as if a bomb had went off.

Nurses and other staff were coughing and yelling questions and orders at one another. Recovery Girl was at the forefront, a large, bleeding gash on her forehead that another teacher was trying to treat. Aizawa, who had been right outside the infirmary, was forced to push a piece of debris off of him after a section of wall had fallen on him. He stood to his feet and, after gritting his teeth and holding a bleeding spot on his side, turned around to the infirmary that had just exploded behind him.

Except there wasn't an infirmary there. No wall, no ceiling, no nothing. Just a barely stable floor and a single human form standing amidst the rubble.

The form in question was, of course, Kyomu, though Aizawa couldn't recognize him anymore aside from his face. He was completely bare, save for a pair of dark pants and shoes that had once been part of a school uniform. His hair, once split between black and white, was now a solid, dark gray color that reflected light with a silver sheen and had lengthened all the way from his shoulders to his lower back. His eyes, now both softly glowing a deep purple, were affixed to his right arm. That very arm was emitting sparks of silver electricity, and a flowing, liquid-like silver substance was moving up and down the arm.

"Hey, Aizawa." Kyomu's voice, toneless and without emotion, was quiet enough that it was barely heard by the homeroom teacher. "Get outta the way, would you? I'm on a tight schedule."

There wasn't enough time to form a response, as by the time the electrical signals in the teacher's brain could have made a response, Kyomu was already behind him and calmly walking away. Before his eyes decoded the light messages telling him Kyomu had moved, dozens of silver lines streaked across his body, leaving deep, bloody gashes all over him. Before Kyomu had even walked out of the remains of the infirmary, Aizawa had already collapsed onto the ground.

"Can you please see to him, Recovery Girl?" Kyomu asked as he walked by a stunned nurse. "I gotta go."

He didn't wait for a response. The teen with the silver hair just continued to walk forwards, even as those he left behind stared after him. Even when an alarm began to ring out throughout the school's PA system, his gait didn't slow a single step.

Even as heroes that were once his teachers began running around corners and down the halls towards him, all he did was stare as more silvery energy sparked around him.


	31. Chapter 31

**Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Episode Final- Silver**

* * *

 _"So... this is the result of Light and Void fusing..."_

It was difficult to describe the power that was running through him. On one hand, he felt powerful. More powerful than he'd ever felt in his entire life, and that was saying a lot from where he was coming from. A single power that had the attributes of both abilities. A single power that displayed those attributes with more power than the original Quirks. A single power that didn't have the line of sight limitation Void had or the limited store of light that Light had.

On the other hand, his entire body felt like it was on fire. As he fought through the school, though, the pain was becoming rapidly numbed. And he could tell from the exhaustion creeping into his body that it wasn't from him healing or from him getting used to his newfound abilities.

He didn't have much time. Fortunately, didn't need that much.

 _"Just one more thing, Hikari. I just need to do one more thing, okay? Just wait a little longer."_

The teachers at UA may not have been top heroes by any stretch of the imagination, with the exception of one, of course, but they were all reputable heroes in their own right. The whole reason Kyomu had went and taken Aizawa out so fast was because of that nullification power of his. They were dangerous. All of them were dangerous. And while he truly didn't blame them for being in his way, they were in his way.

At the very least, he was thankful that he now had the power to remove them without killing them.

"Cementoss," Kyomu dully greeted. In his hand was the unconscious form of Present Mic, who he gently set down next to the other unconscious form of Midnight. Even more fallen teachers were right behind him, along with fallen walls, broken ceilings, and shattered floors.

To their credit, they'd mobilized rather rapidly after he'd destroyed the infirmary. Classrooms were locked down and all the heroic teachers had rushed out to stop him as he made his way out of the school. But, just like Aizawa, they fallen within a blink of an eye. But even as he cut through their numbers like nothing, they still stood in his way. Even when the school's exit was but a single corridor away, they were still trying to oppose him.

If nothing else, he could respect them for all the effort.

Cementoss didn't so much as offer him a greeting in return. The hero with the blocky, cement-like body just slammed his hands into the ground, and after some rumbling, concrete shot up from the ground all around him and encapsulated Kyomu in a circular tomb of cement.

And then he broke out of the prison in a single movement, appeared across the whole corridor right in front of a shocked Cementoss in that same movement, grabbed his rectangular head, and smashed it into the ground hard enough that his gray, rock-hard skin cracked.

"Out of my way. All of you." He turned around and saw more figures approaching him from down the hall. He twitched his fingers, and silver lightning arced off the wall next to him and traveled down the hallway, destroying the walls, ceiling, and floor in the process, as well as blasting the figures back when it reached them.

Kyomu didn't even spend the time to observe the destruction his power wrought. All he did was turn around right after the hallway was destroyed and burst out the front doors.

The sunlight hit his body as he leaped out from the school, though in his current state, he couldn't feel the warming effect of the sun's rays. He landed at the front of the school's courtyard, and right up ahead he could see the large, metal security gate that surrounded the entire school and blocked his exit.

So he simply swiped his hand in front of the gate. A silver, liquid-like substance appeared and overlapped the space the gate occupied, stayed for a second, and then disappeared. The gate disappeared entirely along with the silver substance with absolutely nothing left behind, as if there had never been a gate there in the first place.

Of course, with the way out wide open, he took steps towards the open entrance. But he'd only made it two steps, as, on the third step, he found his foot rooted to the ground. An annoyed sound was hummed in the back of his throat, and he looked down to see what was holding him to the concrete.

He scoffed out loud when he saw a small, purple ball on the ground sticking to the bottom of his foot.

"If it isn't the man himself," he sneered as more silver material appeared and made the ball disappear. "I swear, Mineta," he continued as he turned around, "if you throw one more ball at me-"

Kyomu stopped himself when he fully turned around, and had to brush some of his long, silver hair out from his face to ensure he was seeing right. Mineta was there, but so were twenty-one other students right besides him. All of them with various looks of confusion, betrayal, shock, sadness, and in Bakugo's case in particular, anger.

All of Class 1-A was right behind him. All of them were staring right at him. Some were even flaring their Quirks in warning. Flames and ice were softly coalescing around Todoroki's body, fiery sparks were leaping off of Bakugo's palms, and Tokoyami's Dark Shadow was hovering right over his shoulder.

It was an honestly shocking sight for Kyomu, who hadn't expected resistance from his classmates. Other heroes and maybe police, for sure. Not other students, and especially not these ones. Shocking, but not too surprising. Because deep down he knew that if anybody was going to oppose somebody who'd blasted through the school and took down all those teachers who were also heroes, it was them.

As endearing as it was annoying given current circumstances, but he was flattered at the attention. Flattered, but not very appreciative.

"This has nothing to do with any of you," he told them. He raised his voice as he high as he could, but even then it was low and hoarse, and he felt strained from doing just that much. "Go back. You're only going to get hurt trying to stop me."

They actually looked offended at that comment. He supposed he couldn't blame them, but at the same time he didn't care. _Couldn't_ care. He just didn't have time.

Of the twenty-one present, one stepped forwards ahead of the pack. Iida, who was shaking so hard he had to continuously prop his glasses back on his face to ensure they wouldn't fall off. He was one of the more conflicted-looking ones, and there was sweat visibly running down his face. But he stood firm, and he had taken a deep breath before he finally spoke.

"Shinka! As the class representative for Class 1-A, I speak for the entire class when I implore you to cease your reckless actions and turn yourself back in to the proper authorities!" he bellowed out at Kyomu. "Your actions have caused massive property damage to our school, and you have severely wounded a number of our heroic teachers!" He stopped and sucked in a large breath before looked down at his feet. "Just stop," he said in a quieter voice. "I don't know why you're doing this. W-we don't know why you did all the things Midoriya... you need to explain yourself in front of-"

"There's nothing to explain," Kyomu interrupted. "What I told to Midoriya was the truth. I lied. I killed villains for selfish reasons. I have nothing more to say on the matter." Silver material raced up Kyomu's arms. "Mr. Class Representative. I'll warn ya once. You or anybody else takes a step forwards, we fight right here, right now. And you'll all lose. Or you could just stay put and let me go."

It was, by all accounts, a bluff. It wasn't a matter of he couldn't fight them- he could. He knew for a fact he could beat them all at once, easily. The problem was time. He didn't know how close All For One was to Tartarus. He didn't even know exactly where he was, and all he had to go on was that he was in an armored car on the road somewhere heading to Tartarus. He needed to get to that car before it arrived at Tartarus. He didn't have time to fight twenty-one of his classmates.

But they didn't know he was time-constrained. They probably did know he could beat them all.

 _"But damn it all, knowing them, I won't be able to intimidate them into stopping no matter what I say. They're heroes."_

And just as he predicted, somebody did step forwards past Iida and stopped at the space between Kyomu and the group of classmates. Not Sen, who Kyomu expected the most to have stepped up. Not Midoriya, who Kyomu had half-expected to try and talk some sense into him. Not even Bakugo, who Kyomu could have pictured saying something about how he was being such an idiot for throwing everything away the way he just did.

No. It was Koda. The quietest student in the whole class who Kyomu had never even heard whisper above small murmurs. His purple eyes had widened when he saw the teen with the stone-textured skin step forwards, and even a majority of the class behind him had various looks of surprise and concern on their faces.

"Shinka... Kyomu... please, you must stop." It was the loudest and most consistent he'd ever heard his classmate speak. His voice was high and soft, which contrasted greatly with his outward appearance. Above all that, though, was the look on Koda's face. That look of absolute sadness set in his face, and the tears streaming profusely from his eyes.

Pitiful.

"You're our friend," he said. "You've... you've made terrible, terrible mistakes. There's no getting around that. But you're a good person, too. I know that. You-"

A silver portal appearing in front of him cut Koda off. A fist made from silver material rocketing out from the portal, punching Koda square in the chest, and sending him flying into the destroyed school behind the rest of the students caused all of them to immediately turn on Kyomu and rush towards him with all their various powers activating or coming to their side.

"No time." Kyomu swiped his right hand in front of him, and a great, silver wall instantly appeared between him and them with each end spanning the entirety of the school grounds. "I need to go. I don't have time to fight all of you..."

There was a great yell above him, and a body propelled itself over the top of the wall with an explosion. There was a second explosion right behind the blonde body, and Bakugo, yelling at the top of his lungs, came spiraling right towards Kyomu with a jet of explosions firing out from his palms. Right before he'd touched down on the ground, Kyomu's body glowed silver and he'd maneuvered right behind him in a single, fluid motion. The ground where Bakugo touched down exploded, but right before he was able to look up to see where Kyomu had disappeared to, the silver-haired teen hit him on the back of the head. The force was sufficient enough to send him flying a few meters, and his body quickly grew still when he came to a halt.

Others were quickly finding ways to get past the wall Kyomu had made. Todoroki was skating on a bridge of ice that extended over the wall. Ojiro had used his tail as a spring to leap over. Sero used his tape to swing himself using Todoroki's ice as an anchor. Anybody who could get over the wall did get over the wall.

But by the time they touched the ground on the other side it was too late. Kyomu was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

 _"Where?"_

 _"Where where where where?"_

He'd ran away after he'd knocked out Bakugo. He'd just ran, and considering his speed, not even Iida would have been able to keep up even if they saw which direction he'd went. It mattered none to him. All that mattered was that he was away, and that he was free to pursue All For One.

But there were two problems. One was that somebody- and really, considering the number of people in that school, it could have been anybody- had called the police and heroes. He seldom ran into police, as he imagined his current status classified him as a villain, but there were plenty of heroes. Heroes with costumes of all shapes and colors and with all sorts of Quirks coming to try and arrest the villain rampaging through the streets.

They weren't a an issue.

The second problem, on the other hand, was that he didn't know where the damn armored car was. He didn't know the streets well enough to make a rational guess. He didn't even know how close how All For One was to Tartarus, or even if he'd arrived there yet.

This was a major issue.

At the very least, he knew where the actual prison was thanks to an article he'd skimmed over in his free time. So he'd go to the bridge leading to the prison and work the streets backwards from there. It was his best chance to find the car and put an end to this.

 _THUD!_

"The prison's that way, right...?" Kyomu mumbled to himself as the large, building-sized body of a costumed woman fell down and cracked the streets in front of him. "Yes, it's... yeah. That way. The prison. All For One."

He heard a sound, and moved his head to the side as a rope-like piece of wood shot past him. Without missing a beat, he'd slid to a nearby car, dug his fingers into one of the car's doors, and had ripped it right off of the car only to throw it right behind him like a throwing disk. The car door whistled through the air and impacted the stomach of a wood-clad hero who had been in the air above him, hanging off branched growing out of his body. The air left his body when the door hit him, and his unconscious body fell to the street in the same way the large hero's body who was shrinking behind Kyomu had.

There were dozens more unconscious heroes behind the wood-clad hero that Kyomu had dealt with prior.

"Kamui, the giant lady... pretty sure Edgeshot was one of the ones back there, too..." Kyomu mumbled to himself. He stopped himself when he felt a heat source began to grow near him, and lurched into a silver portal that opened next to him just as a fireball passed by his location. He emerged from a second silver portal a few meters away, and immediately his head turned to where the fireball had originated from. "Endeavor too, huh? Man. They really don't like me."

The fiery hero in question was a good distance away from the rapidly shrinking body of the large hero Kyomu had knocked out prior, with his face set in an unpleasant grimace as fire roared around his body. All Kyomu needed was a single glance at him before several silver lines tore across the hero's body that cut to such a degree that he was floored almost instantly from the attack, and soon became motionless.

Kyomu didn't spare him a single glance before disappearing at inhuman speeds as he continued his search.

* * *

His body was getting heavy, and breathing was starting to become a struggle. On top of that, the edges of his vision was beginning to go black. And he could barely feel anything anymore his exhaustion was so great.

Frankly, it was taking almost everything he had to not pass out on the spot. But he couldn't do something like that. Everything would be over if he went and did something like that.

But the sight of Tartarus in the distance kept him going. Japan's most secure prison complex just off the shore of the city with the only thing connecting it to land being a bridge. Said bridge was currently closed down, but that didn't matter much to Kyomu, who was standing at the end of the bridge. He didn't need to get into the actual prison. He just needed to intercept what was going to the prison.

And how fortunate that, down the road and past all the buildings, he could see a small convoy coming towards him. An armored police carrier with one police car in front and another right behind it. He hadn't even needed to seek it out- all he had to do was wait for the car. More of a happy accident, really, as he currently wasn't mentally fit enough to realize sitting here and waiting was the best strategy for finding the car, but at the moment he couldn't care less. He'd found it.

It would finally be over soon.

The first thing to go was the police car in front of the armored carrier. Kyomu had jumped out of a silver portal next to the convoy a hundred meters out from the bridge and had swiped his hand, which caused a silver line to appear and bisect the entire car in half. Less than a second later a silver portal opened above the armored carrier, and a solid hand made of silver material reached through and grabbed the large car, halting it in place. Four silver lances materialized next to the four wheels and thrust themselves in, demolition the vehicles motor abilities, and two silver swords materialized over the car's engine and dropped right through for good measure.

The third car was merely dispatched when the silver hand let go of the armored car, grabbed the car in the back, and threw it into the nearest building.

Any cops that weren't immediately knocked out from Kyomu's assault had left their destroyed vehicles and had drawn their respective weapons while shouting at Kyomu to drop to the ground. All Kyomu had to do was merely look at them, and silver lines cut across their bodies and caused them all to drop. No sooner had they and their weapons clattered to the ground did Kyomu walk towards the back of the armored car, where he saw the two large doors in its rear separating him from whatever was within. They were torn away by the silver hand above the car, which disappeared right after.

He saw him before the daylight had even flooded into the interior of the armored car. Sitting all the way in the back, bolted to the wall with heavy restraints with life support equipment all around and attached to him. Still missing the right arm Kyomu had torn off and still wearing the suit that was little more than tatters now.

 _"The bastard's still smiling."_

Even after everything, All For One was still wearing a giant grin on his scarred, featureless face. That one, single fact had sent so much rage through the teen's exhausted body it had actually stunned him and made him pause for a single second. And that single second proved to be one too many as a shadow flew over him and a familiar voice boomed a set of words that caused pangs of worry to shoot through him.

"CAROLINA... SMASH!"

Kyomu had just enough time to erect a silver shield across his body the second the sound hit his ears before a colossal force impacted him and sent him skidding a full ten meters backwards through the street. Two silver hands materialized above each of his shoulders and slammed into the ground, the fingers digging through the concrete and causing Kyomu to come to a halt. When he stopped, all the silver around him dissipated and he lifted up his purple eyes to confirm what he was thinking.

And, upon looking up, he was proven to be right. Standing right in front of the opened armored car with his red, white, and blue outfit was All Might himself in his muscled form. Hands clenched and at his sides, blonde hair with the two antenna-like bangs flowing in the wind, and a face that was set in stone and completely serious with his blue eyes barely visible beneath his scowl.

He'd seen All Might, the teacher, at his lowest, but he'd never seen All Might, the number one hero, look so morose before in all his life. In fact, he'd never seen the number one hero not smiling.

"Get the hell outta my way you goddamn westaboo." He didn't have the patience. Even more than that, he didn't have the time. "That thing strapped to the walls behind you. It's dying. Not even you can stop that."

"That remains to be seen, young Shinka," All Might boomed at him. "Your little rampage has gone on long enough. Just how many policemen and heroes do you think you've wounded today? Just how many more crimes are you willing to commit all so you can get your petty vengeance?"

"It's not like I killed anybody," Kyomu countered. "I made sure to avoid vital arteries and tendons when I used my power to cut everybody down. I only assaulted anybody that slowed me down. If anything, you should be thanking me for being so merciful."

That statement resulted in a saddened sigh from All Might. "Merciful. Merciful is what you call it." His broadened shoulders slumped. "Murdering villains and a hero is merciful? Mentally scarring your entire class through your treacherous actions is merciful? No, young Shinka. Those actions aren't merciful. Those are the actions of a villain. And as a hero, I must bring you down, villain."

Glowering at All Might, Kyomu scoffed. "You call yourself a hero, and yet the so-called-hero is defending the world's worst monster who's lying helpless behind you. You'd let that thing live just because 'it's the right thing to do' even after everything it's taken."

"Murder isn't the answer, young Shinka," All Might argued.

"You weren't thinking that when you punched its face off." When the hero didn't respond, Kyomu continued. "Villains aren't human, so they should die. That is what I decided years ago. All For One proved that I was right. Why can't anybody see that I'm right?"

All Might shook his head, and his expressions softened just slightly. "No, Shinka, you're... that's wrong." He grimaced, looked down at his feet, sighed, and looked back up. "The world isn't so black and white that you can make irrational generalizations like that. You know that. Any sane person would know that."

"No. You _made_ it black and white, All Might. You and everybody else." He paused. "No, it's even worse than that. You made the world such a confusing mess of gray that you can't even tell black and white apart anymore. You all made the world monochrome." Kyomu took a single step forwards. The street crumbled under his foot when he stomped down, and his purple eyes began to glow as he slowly approached All Might. "I hate you," he said, voice completely even and sincere. "I hate All For One. I hate the heroes and their society for the injustice they impart. I hate villains for hurting people. I hate _everything_." The last word came out in a growl, and as he said it tendrils of silver energy began to leak out from his back. "My black and white ideals are the only ideals that make sense in this monochrome world you, the heroes, and the villains created. Everything else is nonsense. It's made up justice-babble people with political powers and laws made, reinforced by police with weapons and heroes with Quirks. All For One circumvented it all because he was strong enough that he could make his own rules. So I'm doing the same thing. Because it _works_. Because my ideals don't get big brothers locked in prison and turn little brothers into serial murderers."

"Kyomu..." It was the saddest Kyomu had ever heard All Might sound. Even though his voice was deepened and louder due to the form he'd taken, that single word had still come out stifled and pitiful. "You would truly follow the philosophy of a villain that you blame for murdering your entire family? For destroying the orphanage and everyone in it that took you in?"

"I'm not a monster," Kyomu countered. "I'm not gonna hurt, exploit, and experiment on innocent people. I'm just gonna save people by murdering a villain. Because even if the laws says I'm wrong, I'm right. Because I'm stronger than the law. The fact nobody managed to stop me proves it. Our ideals are just similar. That's all."

The teen stopped two meters away from All Might, eyes growing brightly, silver energy leaking out of him, and silver arcs of electricity sparking all around him. Face crooked in anger and eyes sunken in with exhaustion as he stared up at the hero opposing him.

All Might, for his part, looked about as exhausted as Kyomu felt despite the fact he wasn't damaged at all. But if the single tear rolling down All Might's face was any indication, he was as mentally fatigued as Kyomu was both in body and mind.

And then Kyomu coughed, and with his enhanced vision he saw specks of blood fly out of his mouth and hit the ground in front of him. All Might had seen the blood, too, as his eyes had tracked their path before going back to Kyomu, who looked at the spattered ground impassively.

"Young Shinka. Even with this newfound power, you cannot beat me," All Might claimed in an honest, sad tone. "You're exhausted. Your fight with that villain, Recovery Girl's healing, cutting through the city and all those heroes, the toll all this power is taking on your body... any other number of factors I don't even know. If you don't stop, you'll-"

"Die?" Kyomu finished. "I know. I knew that when I left the school. I will die here, All Might." The hero's expression turned shock, and the power roiling around Kyomu subsided as he raised his right hand and stared at it as silver power flowed around it. "My enhanced body is the only reason I got so far and made it to this point, but even it can't handle all this stress. I've likely already suffered permanent damage for pushing myself beyond my limit. I can't even feel pain anymore. I'm just tired." He lowered his hand and looked back at All Might. "Living is pointless anyways. I have no future anymore. So as my last act, I've decided to prove my black and white ideals are superior to everybody else's monochromatic ideals. The government's. The heroes'. The villains'. You're all wrong, and I'm the only right one. I've already defeated the League of Villains. I've already cut through Japan's police and its hero forces." He pointed to the armored car behind All Might. "By defeating you and killing All For One, it will prove that I was right since nobody could stop me. Even when I die, everybody will know. I've done too much damage for this to be covered up. Everybody saw. You and all of UA know the truth of my past. It'll be just like Stain. Even after I die, my ideals, my message, will never fade.

"But more than that, I don't have to beat you. I just have to outlast you. You have a time limit, don't you? You told me so yourself. And I'm living on borrowed time. We both have time limits now, All Might. So come on. One last fight."

After Kyomu finished talking, the two males began so slowly circle one another. The silver power once again began to coalesce around Kyomu, while All Might flexed his muscles and kept his sunken eyes locked onto Kyomu.

And then, without any fanfare, All Might cocked his fist back.

"Detroit...!"

But in a flash of silver, Kyomu appeared right behind him and had rammed a fist coated in silver energy right into All Might's face. Face distended from the fist, All Might's blue eyes turned backwards and only caught a glimpse of Kyomu right before his body flew away from the momentum.

Loud crashing noises were heard as All Might's body crashed through three whole buildings before stopping at a forth. Kyomu had hopped out from a silver portal and stood at the edge of the third building's roof while looking down at the forth, after which a brightly-colored figure shot up in the air towards Kyomu.

He made a move to step backwards, but a pained shock raced through his systems and he felt his muscles seize up. That moment was all the time All Might needed to fly past Kyomu and grab him as they both rocketed into the sky from the momentum of All Might's jump.

"You're wrong, Shinka!" All Might yelled at him as he held the teen in his grip. "Might makes right, is that it!? Is that really the dying message you want to give everybody!? The world doesn't operate on that principle! We heroes protect a society that goes against that very premise!"

"You're protecting a broken system!" Kyomu yelled back as his silver-coated hands began to pry All Might's fingers away. "I wouldn't be winning if it worked! My brother wouldn't be dead if it worked! That thing down there wouldn't exist if it worked!"

He finally pried his fingers away and kicked All Might away, though, due to the momentum, they were both still flying in the same direction. Points of silver light flashed all around Kyomu's sailing body, and from those beams shot streams of silver light directed right at All Might. He'd twisted and turned in the air in an effort to try and avoid the beams, but some had managed to tag him, with one beam going through his left shoulder while a second went through his abdomen.

The hero grit his teeth, and blood flowed out from the gaps between those teeth. He'd attempted to throw punched as Kyomu and have the concussive pressure try and hit him, but his body had instantaneously transported from one position to another with thin trails of silver marking the movements his body made.

Grunting, All Might twisted his body around, and after yelling a hearty "NEW HAMPSHIRE SMASH!" punched out into the sky with both hands. The force of his punch not only cancelled out the momentum making him fly, but had reversed it entirely and sent him flying right into Kyomu. The teen grunted as the two males began flying backwards, both spinning out of control.

Jets of silver energy spouted out from Kyomu's shoulders and stabilized him right as the pair were nearing the buildings below. The jets flared outwards and stopped Kyomu entirely, and then decreased in intensity as he gently landed on a building's roof. All Might, for his part, punched at the air a few more times to manipulate his own momentum and crashed down on the opposite side of the building Kyomu stood on.

"You're wrong about one thing," Kyomu called out to All Might from across the rooftop. "I know the whole 'might makes right' philosophy is wrong. That's the point. By winning using that philosophy and imprinting my ideals, the people will realize your hero society is defunct." He raised his hand in a hapless shrug as more silver points of energy flashed to life around him. "'How did he get so far?' they'll ask. 'Why could the heroes do nothing?' 'Why did he get more results than the heroes?' The fact I managed to accomplish so much combined with everything I lost that your society failed to protect will make the people question everything. They'll wonder why I won when you all lost. Maybe they'll think I'm right. Maybe not. At the very least they'll call for change." The silver points floating around him brightened. "You should be thankful! I'm doing what everybody else failed to do! I'm fixing your damn world!"

Beams fired out from the silver points, but All Might proved to be even faster than them. He dashed from one point on the roof to another that, to normal, human eyes, it would have appeared he was teleporting, and even Kyomu's eyes almost failed to track the hero's movements as he easily dodged the silver beams and closed in on the teen. Frowning, Kyomu splayed his fingers out, and a silver ball of pulsing energy appeared right in All Might's path. The hero's momentum proved to be too great and he dashed right into the center, after which the ball contracted, and then rapidly expanded in a large, electrical explosion. All Might's body was flung backwards only to end up hitting another silver sphere, which contracted and exploded like the first and sent All Might yet into another. The hero was knocked around like a pinball between these spheres a full twenty times before a silver arm appeared over Kyomu's shoulder, snatched All Might from midair, and flung him backwards into the nearest building.

It was right after All Might was out of sight did all the silver energy around Kyomu disappear and he fell down to his knees, gasping out loud with his eyes fluttering open and closed.

 _"The pain's flashing up again. Everything hurts. My chest... what's wrong with my...?"_ He held his hand up to the area over his heart, and his exhausted eyes widened when he felt what the problem was. _"My heart stopped,"_ he realized. _"Too soon. Wasn't supposed to happen yet. I need to keep my blood flowing before I pass out and die."_

A low groan left him as his body briefly lit with a pulse of light. The veins all along his body softly glowed as silver energy ran through his entire circulatory system, with the momentum of the flowing power carrying his blood along with it. He felt breath begin to return to his body, and he let out a relieved sigh as he shakily rose back up.

He'd figured that eventually the toll his body was taking would catch up to him eventually, but he didn't think his heart would stop this soon. He tried to get it to move with his power, but all it did was hang limply in his chest. Even worse, he could feel a burning, searing sensation all throughout the inside of his body where his Quirk's power was pushing the blood through his veins.

 _"The Quirk is moving my blood along, but it's scorching my veins and blood vessels in the process. My insides are too delicate, and I don't have a fine enough control over my new power to mitigate the damage."_ He saw a cloud of debris appear in the streets below him as All Might freed himself from the building he'd been thrown in, and he could vaguely make out a brightly-colored form flying towards him. _"I have minutes at best before my veins start to tear open and I begin to die from internal blood loss. Less if more of my organs fail before that. No time."_

"Texas Smash!" All Might yelled as he approached Kyomu's position, thrusting his fist out in front of him and creating a gale force strong enough that, not only did it sweep Kyomu completely off his feet, but blew him off of the building entirely. "Missouri Smash!" he yelled once more, and then punched his right arm out at an awkward angle. The force and angle of this punch caused a swirling storm of wind that swept Kyomu up and spun him around and around in the air, right up until All Might's fist smashed into him and launched him downwards into the streets below.

Kyomu, whose body had been protected by a thin veil of shimmering, silver material, smashed into the streets below, bounced off of the pavement three times, and then slammed down a final time before rolling to a halt. A short distance away All Might touched down and, without even missing a beat, turned to face him.

But there was something different with him. All Might's face was set in a slight grimace, and the muscles in his face seemed tense, as if he was trying to suppress an expression. Furthermore, there were droplets of blood seeping out between the gaps of his clenched teeth. And even more alarming than all of that was the small amount of white steam that was beginning to waft off his body.

 _"His time limit is either close, or he's past time and forcing himself to maintain that form,"_ Kyomu thought as he slowly climbed to his feet. _"His weakness is that he'll eventually reach a point where he won't be able to fight, but I'll die before he reaches that point at this rate. I need to shorten his time somehow... wait, weakness. Wasn't there a spot...?"_ His purple eyes snapped lower, towards All Might's abdomen. _"That wound. I remember he showed me a wound. The spot where All For One tore his organs out,"_ he realized. _"That would be as good a weak spot as any."_

There was a flash of purple from Kyomu's eyes, and in that instant a silver line appeared and slashed right through All Might's side. He gasped out loud and stumbled just as fabric from his costume fell away along with an unhealthy splash of blood. He held his hand to the wound, and from Kyomu's position he could see the large, purple wound between the hero's fingers as he held a hand to the wound.

 _"As long as you're in my line of sight, I can make this power appear anywhere like I could with Void,"_ he thought as two silver portals appeared on either side of All Might. _"I'm gonna keep hitting your wound until you give out."_

The silver arms grabbed each of All Might's arms, and though he was able to shake them off easily, the process of shaking the silvers arms only caused them to briefly disperse before they reformed and grabbed at each of his arms over and over. As this happened, a third silver portal appeared at his side, and a third silver hand clenched in a fist shot out like a piston and directly impacted the swollen, bleeding spot. More blood flowed out from both the wound and All Might's mouth and, right before he could regain his footing, the third hand snapped backwards before shooting forwards once again and directly impacted the wound.

"Sh... Shinka..." All Might had fallen to his knees after that last hit to his weak spot. The steam that was continually wafting from his body increased to an amount that half of his body was practically obscured by the fog, and Kyomu could see his body begin to visibly shrink. The third silver arm had disappeared while the first two maintained their grips on his rapidly-thinning arms while the features on his face began to grow more sharp and gaunt as he looked upwards at Kyomu who was shambling towards him. "You... you cannot..."

"Yes I can. I just did," Kyomu rasped as he came to a halt right in front of All Might. Without any further words he shot his right hand, the fingers of which were covered and sharpened with silver material, and dug it into the bleeding wound on the hero's side. He gasped out in pain, but otherwise managed to maintain eye contact with Kyomu as he stared down the number one hero. "Hey, All Might. Do me one last favor," the teen asked. "Tell Sen I'm... sorry it turned out this way. Between us. I was in such a hurry back at UA we didn't get a chance to talk." He tore his hand out from All Might's wound, and the hero doubled over on the ground as the hand holding him disappeared. "That's all I wanted to say," Kyomu finished. "Tell him, wouldja? I won't be able to."

All Might had opened his mouth to try and say something, but before any words had left his mouth Kyomu had kicked him in the face. His body fell backwards and lied sprawled on the ground, but he kept moving. Even as Kyomu turned his back to him and began walking away, All Might slowly began to sit up and grit his teeth as more steam pumped out of his body and he began to bulk up slightly.

His second wind was short-lived when Kyomu looked back, and a portal appeared above his head only for a silver fist to rain down from it and slam into the top of All Might's head. Kyomu, not even bothering to check the hero's condition after the hit, turned to a silver portal that had opened in front of him and jumped right through.

* * *

It had taken him a bit of time to relocate the armored car, as his fight with All Might had tossed him further than he had thought, but fortunately Kyomu had found the car with just enough time to spare.

So, naturally, he'd entered through the hole he'd made by tearing the doors off the armored car and stumbled towards the back. All For One was still grinning the same grin he'd had on since Kyomu had ripped the doors off of the armored car, and though he no longer had eyes, his head was positioned in a way that made it appear that he was staring right at Kyomu.

And then there was Kyomu himself, who stood right in front of him. Wearing nothing but dark, torn pants. Body bruised and battered, and the veins covering his body burnt to a point that they were little more than black lines branching across his entire pale body. His face was completely disheveled, with his eyes wide in an effort to fight off the exhaustion plaguing his body as he breathed heavily with a constant stream of blood leaving his mouth.

"Shinka Kyomu," All For One greeted, voice completely jovial and nonchalant despite the situation. "You look awful, my boy."

"You're one to talk," Kyomu droned. "I don't have anything to say to you."

Silver energy ran along his right hand, and immediately he reached out and grasped All For One's remaining arm that was strapped down. The wrist and hand he held onto retained its color, but above the wrist silver material slowly began to spread up the arm. All For One's reaction was a simple hum,

"I heard what you said to All Might," he mentioned as the silver energy reached his shoulder after coating his entire arm above the wrist. "You would truly martyr yourself after everything? Just for an ideal?"

"I don't have a better alternative to get what I want," Kyomu said. "And my heart stopped a while ago. I'm dead anyways."

"Yes, I can see. How unfortunate for you." He certainly didn't sound remorseful, as his voice still sounded playful and his grin was still wide. Kyomu ignored this in favor of continuing to spread his silver power across the man's body. "I suppose you're not one to allow me my final words?"

"Nope."

And just like that, aside from his hand and wrist, All For One's entire body was covered in the silver material, with his head being the last past covered. And even as his face was covered, right before it was obscured, all Kyomu saw of All For One's face was that smile.

But after he was completely covered, the silver substance covering him flashed briefly, and then deformed as the human shape beneath the layer of silver disappeared. The hand Kyomu was gripping pulled away as the silver material dissipated to reveal nothing beneath it, and soon enough it disappeared entirely to reveal an empty seat and hanging straps that were securing nothing. Kyomu, who stared blankly at the spot, looked down at the severed hand he was holding, the last piece of All For One, before he unceremoniously dropped it on the ground.

Afterwards a coughing fit overtook him, and after a wheezing breath escaped him Kyomu fell onto his back.

 _"I'm done,"_ he thought. His arms were spread to his side, though he couldn't even move them anymore. His breathing was becoming more and more shallow, and his vision began to darken as the purple eyes that stared up at the ceiling began to glaze over. _"It's not gonna fix everything. Villains are still out there. Shigaraki and his League, too, but... everybody in my class can handle villains. I can leave Shigaraki to Midoriya. But maybe my actions will make people see. See that everything isn't alright, and that maybe some things can change for the better._

 _"Isn't that what you wanted, Hikari? Things here to change?"_ Kyomu's breathing stopped entirely, and his body went still. His consciousness began to fade as his vision left altogether, causing his eyes to reflexively close. _"I know we gave up on change, but I didn't want all the effort you went through to be for nothing. I didn't want you dying to be for nothing. But I gave it my best shot. At the very least I killed that thing, so it can't hurt anybody anymore._

 _"I'm just... really tired, Hikari. Can I please finally go where you went? Will mom and dad be there? I just want to see you all again..."_

The memories of his deceased family were the final thoughts Kyomu managed to create before he finally died.


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N- Real talk, I put that "westaboo" line from last chapter in as a placeholder until I thought of something better to say, but then later on I got curious and googled "westaboo" and the first image came up for me was fanart of All Might. So I decided to leave it in just because.**

 **Anyways, yeah, epilogue chapter. See the A/N at the bottom for my final thoughts.**

* * *

 **Monochromatic Ideals**

 **Epilogue**

* * *

"At the very least he didn't blow the new dorms up. That's a plus, right?"

The harsh glare Sen received from the shorter teen next to him made him quiet almost immediately, and he had to shy away from the pair of green eyes as the two walked down towards the school's faculty room: one of the only rooms that hadn't been destroyed from Kyomu's rampage.

"I'm sorry," Sen apologized, and then went on to rub the back of his neck in an awkward manner. "I just... he... it's all weird, you know?" His hand lowered from his neck and he looked back to Midoriya. "We didn't even get to talk," he said. "I was... you said all that stuff about him, and when I asked him about it and he confirmed it I... I was too upset to talk. And then he just _left_ before I could actually say what I wanted to say."

And oh, how there was so much he wanted to say. There was so much everybody in Class 1-A wanted to say to Kyomu. Not all of it was friendly, of course, but nevertheless everybody had their piece, had something they wanted to get off their chests. Sen especially had enough words for his friend, his first and best friend in the whole class, to fill up entire books. About how he was frustrated at him for having made such stupid choices, how he'd hid so much from them, about how he wanted to reassure Kyomu and tell him everything would be alright now that he had confessed and that they could maybe work to salvage what was left of his life even if he did end up going to prison for a time...

But then he left. They tried to stop him, but he was too fast. And he died.

That was yesterday. UA classes were regulated to online courses for now until the damages to the school were repaired, though training excursions to the simulation cities close by would still be lead by the teachers who had thankfully been healed by Recovery Girl. At the very least those in the hero course had been able to move into their dorms, but the general mood of the move-in was a lot more somber than what had been anticipated due the events of the day prior.

"Could we have even stopped him if he stuck around and fought up?" Sen mumbled to Midoriya in a morose tone. "He beat All Might with that new crazy power of his. He beat Bakugo in, like, a second flat. I don't even know how many heroes and cops he landed in the hospital. He beat everyone. What could we have actually done?"

"Probably not much," Midoriya admitted. "We still had to try though, right? We're... oh."

He looked ahead, and as the both of them stopped Sen traced Midoriya's line of sight to what was in front of him. He grew rigid when he saw Bakugo, who was exiting the faculty room the two of them were heading towards. The blonde teen closed the door behind them, and right as he turned to leave he spotted the other two teens and froze up just as they had. After a few tense seconds all three relaxed and then did their best to try and avoid each others' eyes.

"You two get called here?" Bakugo asked, eyes affixed up at the ceiling.

"Y-yes. All Might wanted to discuss some things with us," Midoriya answered. "K... Bakugo. You know it's not your fault he got away, right?" He waited for a response, but when all Bakugo did was scrunch his features up, Midoriya continued. "After Koda got punched, we all... for a split second we all froze up before we moved in, but you're the only one that acted instantly. It's because you acted instantly that you were the only one that managed to reach him in time before he escaped. I know you didn't manage to do much to stop him, but... even if you failed, you did more than the rest of us." He looked down to the floor. "You were the only one that managed to reach him."

"... And I still couldn't do anything," Bakugo muttered in response. "It was just like with his goddamn brother at USJ. He took me down like I was nothing." Frustration made its way onto Bakugo's face, and his balled fist lashed out and smacked into the wall next to him, startling the other two students. "After all those talks we had, after all the training we all did together, all his big talk about wanting to be our equals when the whole time he was better than us and he _knew it-"_

"He beat All Might, Bakugo. And a bunch of other heroes," Sen interrupted. "Even if the whole class got to him we would have lost. Don't blame yourself. Kyomu was just... he was a really amazin' guy."

This managed to calm down Bakugo somewhat, though his brows were still creased in anger. He regarded Sen for a moment before he finally scoffed and walked past the two of them. "He wouldn't've gotten killed if he was so amazing. He wouldn't've turned out to be a villain if he was amazing," he muttered as he walked past them.

Sen frowned as their classmate walked away, and Midoriya's demeanor turned more somber as his shoulders lowered. Recent events hadn't made things easy for anybody, and emotions all around were tense, but Sen had noticed that Bakugo was taking it a bit harder than most of the rest of the class. Strange, really, since he felt like _he_ should have been taking it the worst seeing as he was the closest one to Kyomu, which was why it was such a surprise to see someone like Bakugo be so heavily affected. Even more of the reserved students like Tokoyami and Todoroki had been acting more solemn than usual, never mind everyone else.

He supposed it went to show how popular Kyomu was, even if nobody ever realized it.

The two watched Bakugo walk off, and then turned to the faculty room's door, approached it, and went through it. The sight on the other side was about what they expected: All Might, sitting on a couch and looking so down that his muscles looked depressed. He was facing a wall-mounted TV displaying a news channels, but once the pair of students walked in he reached for a remote and turned the TV off. He turned towards the two students and, with a subdued sigh, pointed to the couch across from him. Midoriya chose to take a seat while Sen remained by the door.

"I, uh, can't really stay that long," Sen said when he caught All Might raising an eyebrow at him. "We... that is, the class, planned a, y'know, a wake for Kyomu," he explained, "and I promised to help set it up. So yeah."

He didn't know exactly what he was supposed to do, but the whole wake thing had been more or less a group consensus and he, feeling the most remorseful out of anybody, had volunteered to help prepare things.

Knowing himself it'd probably end with him buying a load of snacks using his meager funds.

"Oh, I see. That's fine, young Eikyo," All Might assured with a wave of his hand. "I know you're exhausted after all this and having to have given your statement to the police along with the rest of your class. I just wanted to say, um..." He stopped himself, and coughed into his hand. "Shinka, he... told me he was sorry that he wasn't able to end things properly with you, and wanted me to let you know. I think he knew he was pushing himself too far and-"

"Yeah, heart attack, I know." He could still barely believe that was what had killed him in the end. A stress-induced heart attack. What he could easily believe was that Kyomu knew his body was going to fail him and, like an idiot, still charged ahead to do whatever he wanted. It was such a him thing that it was almost expected.

But, All Might's statement about Kyomu's apology was new information, so Sen decided to press the matter. "He said that, huh?" he asked.

The hero nodded. "I'm sure had the circumstances been more favorable, he would have had much more things to say to you. To your class. To all of us about his feelings and thoughts. But his body was too damaged, and he was too desperate to reach his goal."

"And we... admittedly didn't try very hard to talk to him when we had the chance," Sen added with a sad lilt to his voice. "At least I didn't."

"... That as well," All Might agreed. "Nevertheless, he truly did value as a friend, young Eikyo. The best one he had in the whole world, right next to his own brother, I suspect. I don't know how much comfort that will bring you, if any, but, well... there you have it."

It really didn't, now that Sen thought on it. All it did was reaffirm the fact that he had just lost his best friend. On the other hand, it was hard not to notice the bittersweet feeling that, even after everything he had said to him, Kyomu still considered him a friend. That everything that they shared together wasn't an act to keep up appearances and draw away from the fact he was a murderer.

Even if he was a villain in the end, Kyomu was still his best friend. And Sen just didn't know what to do with that. With the knowledge his best friend was a villain and murder. That his friend was dead. That, to the very end, he'd been thinking of Sen.

"..." He looked down, and then slowly turned towards the door leading out of the faculty room. "Thanks, All Might," he mumbled, and then reached for the door. "I'm gonna meet up with the others and help with the wake. Don't take too much time, huh, Midoriya? We can't start things until everybody's there."

Midoriya nodded. "I know, Eikyo. I won't take too long."

"'Kay. Seeya."

The door couldn't have closed behind him fast enough, and he had to hope that the two inside didn't hear him slump against the door as he breathed out loud and held a shaking hand to his head. Telling himself that everybody else would be at the wake provided him some small comfort. Knowing he had a whole class of friends to confide in about the same matter helped immensely. Knowing that they would be able to support each other through all of this was about the only reason he hadn't broken down yet.

He'd get through this. They all would; he was confident in that. But it didn't make this hurt any less.

 _"Guess it's goodbye, Kyomu,"_ Sen thought as he finally peeled himself off the door and made his way down the same direction Bakugo had went. _"For what it's worth, thanks. For everything."_

* * *

The second the door had closed behind Sen, there was a loud _poof!_ followed by a gust of white smoke from All Might, and seconds later the white smoke dissipated to reveal the thinned, skinny form of All Might who was coughing hard enough into his hand that spurts of blood was flying out from his mouth.

Naturally, Midoriya panicked.

"A-All Might!?" he stuttered, and reached a hand out to his mentor. "Are you okay!?"

"F-fine, young Midoriya," he assured. Blood was still dribbling out from his mouth, but he managed to give his student a thumbs-up and a smile with blood-stained teeth. "That said," he continued, "my... health has declined for the worst." He pursed his lips, and then interlocked his fingers as he grew serious. "I'm afraid that I may have to start considering retirement, young Midoriya."

"Retirement?" Midoriya repeated. The word rang through his head a number of times, and when the full gravity of its meaning beat down on him, he sat back on the sofa and gave All Might a wide-eyed stare. "Why? What's wrong? It's not because of Shinka, is it?"

"Partly," he admitted. "That fight I had with him took much more than I thought it would. Too much." He paused, and then raised his right hand up and stared at it in a forlorn manner. "The truth is, due to me having to have kept up appearances yesterday when I arrested him after he defeated All For One, I ran through my time limit during our fight," he said. "I was forced to push myself beyond my limit, and the remaining embers of One For All suffered because of that. He... also aggravated some of my previous wounds in what I suspect was a moment of desperation. I can only maintain the form of the number one hero for around five minutes a day at this point." He lowered his hand and heaved out a sigh. "That's just not enough time to juggle teaching duties along with heroic duties, so I'm thinking of hanging up my cape so I can devote myself to teaching the heroes of tomorrow full-time."

To be sure, it was a shock for Midoriya. Ever since he learned the truth of All Might he'd known of his ever-shrinking time limit as a hero, and while he knew his retirement was inevitable, he didn't expect it to come this soon, or that he would be so stunned by it. Part of him- a large part at that- blamed Kyomu, who had forced all this stress on All Might. Who put all this grief on him and his classmates, and who had murdered behind their backs.

But then he remembered that his former friend died, and that, in his final moments, he'd had enough good to not kill any of the heroes that he'd fought on his way to All For One. It didn't make up for anything he did, not at all, and it wasn't even all that comforting, but at the very least it went to show there was _something_ good inside of Kyomu. That the way he acted when he studied to be a hero alongside Midoriya and the rest of the class wasn't fake for the most part.

It was such a frustrating conundrum, and Midoriya made it evident by curling his fists that sat in his lap. All Might took note of this and cleared his throat to gain his attention.

"It still weighs heavy, huh?" he noted. "About young Shinka."

Shakily, Midoriya nodded. "I keep thinking back to everything he said to us. How he became a villain, how the police and heroes arrested his innocent brother. I can't forgive Shinka for all the lives he took, but... but I just wonder. Could we have helped him, if we found out sooner?" he asked. "If we saw it early enough... I know he killed even before he came to UA. I know we would have had to imprison him. But we still could have helped him if we'd only seen it, couldn't we have?"

"Maybe," All Might said. "I still remember when I first met him in that orphanage. He wasn't what I thought he would be." He leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling, and a look of nostalgia glazed over his face. "I knew of his past due to UA's background check, and I had personally worked with his mother on a couple of occasions, though I never made mention of it. Despite that, I still expected some excited teenager who would be bouncing on their feet when All Might himself came to visit. Kind of like how you would react, really." He smiled a little when Midoriya silently fumed at him from the other couch. "He wasn't like that at all," he continued. "He was quiet, and rather aloof, but he tried to hide it with dry humor. All in all, he wasn't much different from the one you knew." He stopped himself and took a deep breath. "I remember telling him I thought he would make a great hero," he admitted. "I saw so much potential, not just in his Quirk, but in his mental fortitude and desire to be a hero despite his circumstances. Somebody strong enough to not only turn their fate around but to do it for the sake of others was... truly inspiring."

"But he just wanted to kill villains," Midoriya said. "He said so himself. He wasn't virtuous at all."

"I wouldn't go that far," All Might disagreed, much to Midoriya's surprise. "His goal of wanting to kill villain was completely wrong," he clarified, "don't get me wrong. And he should never have taken a hero's life to protect himself. That's inexcusable. That said, he... legitimately did want to help people, young Midoriya, just in his own way. He wanted to permanently dispose of villains to eliminate any risk of them ever hurting anybody else. He was a young man who was frustrated at the hero society's shortcomings, and had completely lost faith in it all." He leaned back forwards and stared Midoriya in the eyes. "I can't help but feel us heroes failed to save him. Failing to save people out of our reach is one thing... but failing to save somebody who was right besides you all that time? I just don't know. But no matter how twisted his intentions, he really did want to save people. If there's anything I can't fault him for, it's that." His head turned towards the room's window. "Part of me blames All For One," he said with a slightly bitter tone. "That man's machinations dragged the Shinka brothers into their despair. But the other part of me is just saying that I'm making excuses; that I'm trying to pin the blame on him like I did everything else."

"I understand. I feel the same way," Midoriya said with a nod, and he couldn't help but feel lighter when All Might gave him a grateful smile. "It's still hard to believe that All For One is actually gone, though."

"Don't I know it," All Might agreed. "I always figured it would be either you or me that would end him and send him away forever. I never dreamed that young Shinka would have the potential, never mind the drive to pull it off. Just goes to show how much we underestimated him, huh?" They both shared a laugh, but the mood turned back somber as All Might switched from looking at the window to the shut-off TV. "The fallout from this incident will be significant," he stated. "I've already told the police everything. The Shinkas' circumstances, All For One's doings, everything. After they conclude their investigation, it will all be brought to life. Including how they imprisoned an innocent child for a crime he didn't commit.

"I went back and looked at the case files from when their parents died, courtesy of my friend in the police," he explained. "It's... quite obvious, looking back, that it was Shinka Kyomu's Quirk Void that obliterated their home. So much that it's almost baffling the police made this mistake and never caught it. And because of this mistake, this all happened. And the public will latch onto it, young Midoriya. It's how they are: any good done by heroes and police are shadowed by the bad. They just have an easier time remembering things like this. It'll be a black mark on hero society, to be sure. And young Shinka's actions won't help matters. A young hero-in-training killing all those villains and defeating all those heroes, including me? The media will have a circus." He leaned his head back and sighed. "It seems in the end he may get that change he wanted after all," he muttered.

"What do you think will happen?" Midoriya wondered.

All Might waved a hand. "It's hard to say, but I wouldn't be too concerned about it if I were you," he said. "The police and heroes will be scrutinized and be pressured to be more thorough in their villain investigations, likely. Some laws down the line may be passed that help in that regard. The possibility of the public demanding harsher treatment for villains is... a possibility, but a doubtful one. We're already putting as many as we can in Tartarus. Considering what happened with Stain, though, I don't know." He gestured to Midoriya. "But as I said, that's not something you have to worry about. The only thing you have to worry about, young Midoriya, is continuing your hero studies. Mastering One For All. Becoming the number one hero." He flashed him another smile, and thankfully, this one was white. "That's still your dream, is it not?"

"That's right," Midoriya said with a nod. "To be the number one hero who saves people with a nod. As long as villains are out there, a hero's work is never done. And Shigaraki and his League are still at large."

The short teen lifted off of the couch and walked towards the window, and only stopped when he got a good view of the city beyond. All Might followed his student's lead, and walked until he came to a halt right besides Midoriya. Both quietly stared at the city beyond and the citizens inside that they vowed to protect until Midoriya broke the silence.

"Even after everything, I'll still miss him," Midoriya whispered. "He was a good person. Just... lost, I think."

"I know, young Midoriya." In a show of affection, he extended one of his bony arms and draped it over Midoriya's shoulders. "I know."

"But I'll get better," Midoriya said. "I'll never let anything like this happen again. If I can reach somebody, I'll save them, no matter who they are and no matter what the villain. Even if that villain is the worst villain in the world. Even if who I'm trying to save is a villain. Even if that villain is a friend." He reached out to the window with his scarred hand and clenched it into a fist. "I'll become the next symbol and save everybody I can. For the sake of peace. For Kyomu."

All Might patted his shoulders. "For Kyomu."

* * *

 **The End**

* * *

 **A/N- You know, it was around chapter twenty of writing this story did I realize something, and that something I realized may have explained why I started to seriously slow down while I was writing this story:**

 **I don't think I like My Hero Academia.**

 **Don't get me wrong, it's a great show/manga, but it's a matter of personal preference here. It doesn't jive with me: that's the truth. And back when I first started this it was back when I really did like it and got caught up with the hype, got an idea, and put it on paper. Virtual paper, but you get the gist. And I think that's how a lot of people on this site start out. They like something, they get an idea, they make something with it. Problem was the hype fell off me partway through and it made making this story a slog.**

 **But I still wanted to finish it, because this is a genuine hobby and I gotta have some integrity in that fact. And it's not like I didn't have fun doing it. For the most part, at least.**

 **What I'm trying to say is, if you're gonna write stories with 100k+ words, make sure you're actually invested in it.**

 **That all aside, uh... yeah, story's done. I could go full sequel, but I'm not gonna do that because I feel this is a great place to end it. And, 'cause, y'know, I don't wanna write My Hero anymore. I just don't. And I don't really have anything else to say, so thanks to everybody who followed the story, aaaand hope you enjoyed it.**

 **Seeya.**


End file.
